{"id":1067,"date":"2024-05-30T01:46:52","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T01:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/bad-bunny-reggaeton-copyright-lawsuit-can-move-forward-judge-says\/"},"modified":"2024-06-02T17:25:43","modified_gmt":"2024-06-02T17:25:43","slug":"bad-bunny-reggaeton-copyright-lawsuit-can-move-forward-judge-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/bad-bunny-reggaeton-copyright-lawsuit-can-move-forward-judge-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Bunny Reggaeton Copyright Lawsuit Can Move Forward, Judge Says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tA federal judge ruled Wednesday (May 29) that a sprawling copyright lawsuit can move forward with accusations that nearly 2,000 reggaeton songs \u2014 including hits by Bad Bunny, Karol G and dozens of others \u2014 all infringed a single 1989 song that allegedly spawned the so-called \u201cdem bow\u201d rhythm.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe huge infringement case, filed by Cleveland \u201cClevie\u201d Browne and the heirs of Wycliffe \u201cSteely\u201d Johnson, claims that their 1989 song, \u201cFish Market,\u201d was the source of dem bow \u2014 the boom-ch-boom-chick, boom-ch-boom-chick <\/em>percussion featured in nearly every reggaeton song.<\/p>\n

\n\tDemanding that the case be dismissed, Bad Bunny\u2019s lawyers argued last year that Steely & Clevie\u2019s massive case \u201cseeks to monopolize practically the entire reggaet\u00f3n musical genre for themselves\u201d by claiming copyright control over \u201cunprotectable\u201d musical elements.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in the lawsuit\u2019s first key decision, Judge Andr\u00e9 Birotte Jr.<\/strong> denied that motion on Wednesday, ruling that it was too early in the case to make those kinds of complex rulings and that Steely & Clevie had made a strong enough argument to move forward: \u201cIt is premature at this stage to find that the musical elements alleged are insufficiently original or indeed unprotectable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNotably, the judge also hinted that he might not be particularly receptive to such arguments when it\u2019s time to rule on them. At one point, he warned that he \u201crejects\u201d the idea that the massive success of a particular song could be used as a \u201cdouble-edged sword\u201d that would also void its copyrights.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe court recognizes the practice of musical borrowing, and in doing so, cannot merely conclude that because the reggaeton genre (or artists) have purportedly borrowed significantly from attributes of plaintiffs\u2019 work that those attributes are now in effect commonplace elements,\u201d Judge Birotte wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tFirst filed in 2021 against just a handful of defendants, Steely & Clevie\u2019s lawsuit has steadily grown to cover more and more artists and songs. In the latest iteration, the duo\u2019s lawyers name more than 150 artists, also including Pitbull, Drake, Daddy Yankee, Luis Fonsi and Justin Bieber, plus units of all three major music companies.<\/p>\n

\n\tSteely & Clevie\u2019s lawyers claim that over 1,800 reggaet\u00f3n songs featuring iterations of the dem bow rhythm were, at root, illegally copied from \u201cFish Market\u201d \u2014 and that their clients deserve monetary compensation for them. Potentially damages are difficult to calculate, but could easily reach into the billions if the case is successful.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Wednesday\u2019s decision, Judge Birotte also rejected other arguments from the defendants beyond the core question of whether dem bow could be protected by copyright law.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor instance, in a June filing, attorneys for Daddy Yankee and the major labels argued that the case was so massive that it had become procedurally unfair. They called it a \u201cshotgun pleading,\u201d filled with so many vague accusations that it was \u201cimpossible for defendants to determine what each is alleged to have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in Wednesday\u2019s decision, Judge Birotte said he was \u201cunconvinced\u201d by that argument \u2014 and that Steely & Clevie\u2019s 228-page complaint had sufficiently laid out the case to satisfy procedural requirements.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing Wednesday\u2019s ruling, the case will proceed toward discovery, where both sides will exchange evidence, take depositions and seek expert testimony on complex questions relating to musicology. If the judge does not decide the case after discovery, the two sides will head to trial. <\/p>\n

\n\tNeither side in the case immediately returned requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge ruled Wednesday (May 29) that a sprawling copyright lawsuit can move forward with accusations that nearly 2,000 reggaeton songs \u2014 including hits by Bad Bunny, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[784,1519,429,423,303,922,1520],"class_list":["post-1067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-bad","tag-bunny","tag-copyright","tag-judge","tag-lawsuit","tag-move","tag-reggaeton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1131,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067\/revisions\/1131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}