{"id":3059,"date":"2024-10-22T19:19:23","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T19:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/2-live-crew-win-young-thug-ruling-diddy-updates-more-legal-news\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T19:19:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T19:19:23","slug":"2-live-crew-win-young-thug-ruling-diddy-updates-more-legal-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/2-live-crew-win-young-thug-ruling-diddy-updates-more-legal-news\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Live Crew Win, Young Thug Ruling, Diddy Updates & More Legal News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tThis is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from <\/em>Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n\tThis week: 2 Live Crew wins a trial to take back control of its music catalog; Young Thug\u2019s attorney wins a decision overturning his criminal contempt conviction; Diddy faces ever more accusations of sexual abuse; and much more.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n\t\tTHE BIG STORY: Termination Determination\t<\/h2>\n

\n\t2 Live Crew won a rare courtroom showdown over copyright law\u2019s \u201ctermination right\u201d \u2014 a crucial federal provision that allows songwriters and artists to take back the rights to their music decades after they sold them away to a company.<\/p>\n

\n\tTermination has been at the heart of recent lawsuits involving Cher, Brian Wilson and Dwight Yoakam, and both Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment faced class actions from artists pushing to take back their music en masse. Jay-Z recently invoked termination to win back his debut album, and it was also the core issue behind a new \u201clandmark\u201d copyright rule issued last year about who gets paid streaming royalties.<\/p>\n

\n\t2 Live\u2019s dispute kicked off in 2020 when Uncle Luke (Luther Campbell) and the heirs of two co-members invoked termination against Lil Joe Records, which bought the band\u2019s catalog out of bankruptcy in the 1990s. The label fought back by suing the group in federal court, arguing that termination didn\u2019t apply to the five albums at issue in the case.<\/p>\n

\n\tSuch disputes rarely reach a jury. But at a trial earlier this month, attorneys for Lil Joe argued that the protections of the bankruptcy sale had trumped any termination rights held by the members. 2 Live\u2019s attorneys told a different story \u2014 one of \u201cdeceit and dishonesty\u201d by Lil Joe\u2019s owner that \u201cwouldn\u2019t be out of place in a Netflix movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn their verdict, the jurors sided with 2 Live, allowing them to regain much of their catalog. Go read our entire story here to find out more.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tOther top stories this week\u2026\t<\/h2>\n

\n\tCONTEMPT CLEARED<\/strong> \u2013 Georgia\u2019s Supreme Court sided with Brian Steel<\/strong>, an attorney serving as lead counsel to Young Thug in the rapper\u2019s never-ending Atlanta gang trial, and reversed a ruling earlier this year that had held him in contempt of court. The decision will close a bizarre chapter in which Judge Ural Glanville<\/strong> sentenced Steel to 20 days in prison for refusing to reveal how he\u2019d learned of a secret meeting between the judge and prosecutors \u2014 an incident that later saw Glanville removed from the case. But it won\u2019t end the trial, which is already the longest in Georgia state history and has no end in sight.<\/p>\n

\n\tPHOTOG STRIKES AGAIN<\/strong> \u2013 The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was hit with a lawsuit over allegations that the museum illegally displayed a copyrighted image of Van Halen snapped by veteran rock photographer Neil Zlozower. If that name sounds familiar, it should: Zlozower has filed more than fifty such lawsuits over the past decade, including cases against Universal Music Group, Spotify, Ticketmaster, M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce and many others.<\/p>\n

\n\tGOING HOME<\/strong> \u2013 Demetrius \u201cBig Meech\u201d Flenory \u2014 a convicted drug trafficker and money-launderer involved in the early careers of rappers Jeezy and T.I. \u2014 was released from prison and will serve the remainder of his decades-long sentence in a halfway house. The rise and fall of Meech\u2019s gang has been chronicled in 50 Cent\u2019s Starz series BMF<\/em>, on which Flenory\u2019s son plays his father.<\/p>\n

\n\tALWAYS MORE DIDDY<\/strong> \u2013 Since you last heard from Legal Beat<\/em> a week ago, there have three big developments in the story of Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs, who currently stands accused of decades of sexual abuse:<\/p>\n

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