{"id":4781,"date":"2025-03-18T17:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T17:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/umg-blasts-drake-lawsuit-plus-live-nation-karol-g-more-music-law\/"},"modified":"2025-03-18T17:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T17:18:10","slug":"umg-blasts-drake-lawsuit-plus-live-nation-karol-g-more-music-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/umg-blasts-drake-lawsuit-plus-live-nation-karol-g-more-music-law\/","title":{"rendered":"UMG Blasts Drake Lawsuit, Plus Live Nation, Karol G & More Music Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tThis is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from 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: Universal Music Group asks a judge to dismiss Drake\u2019s defamation lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s \u201cNot Like Us\u201d; Live Nation loses an early battle in the Justice Department\u2019s antitrust lawsuit; Karol G is accused of copyright infringement over a song from her chart-topping album Ma\u00f1ana Ser\u00e1 Bonito; and much more.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n\t\tTHE BIG STORY: \u201cA Misguided Attempt To Salve His Wounds\u201d\t<\/h2>\n

\n\tIn its first court response to Drake\u2019s defamation lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s diss track \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d the world\u2019s biggest music company didn\u2019t exactly hold back.<\/p>\n

\n\tUniversal Music Group filed a scathing motion seeking to dismiss the libel case this week \u2013 not only arguing that it was \u201cmeritless,\u201d but also ridiculing Drake for filing it in the first place.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPlaintiff, one of the most successful recording artists of all time, lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated,\u201d UMG\u2019s lawyers wrote. \u201cInstead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTwisting the knife further, the label cited a 2022 petition in which Drake and other stars demanded that prosecutors stop citing rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials: \u201cDrake was right then and is wrong now. The complaint\u2019s unjustified claims against UMG are no more than Drake\u2019s attempt to save face for his unsuccessful rap battle with Lamar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor more, go read the full story here, which includes access to the actual motion filed in court by UMG.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tOther top stories this week\u2026\t<\/h3>\n

\n\tLIVE NATION RULING<\/strong> \u2013 A federal judge ruled that the Justice Department can move ahead with a key allegation in its antitrust case against Live Nation: That the company illegally forces artists to use its promotion services if they want to perform in its massive network of amphitheaters. The ruling denied Live Nation\u2019s bid to dismiss that claim, known as \u201ctying\u201d in antitrust law parlance, at the outset of the government\u2019s sweeping monopoly case.<\/p>\n

\n\tKAROL G LAWSUIT <\/strong>\u2013 Two producers filed a copyright lawsuit against Karol G and UMG over accusations that a track called \u201cGat\u00fabela,\u201d from the Colombian superstar\u2019s chart-topping album Ma\u00f1ana Ser\u00e1 Bonito<\/em>, stole key elements from their earlier song \u00a0called \u201cPunto G.\u201d In an unusual twist, the plaintiffs claim that one of Karol G\u2019s producers tacitly admitted the charge in an exchange on social media.<\/p>\n

\n\tOFFSET SUES PRODUCER<\/strong> \u2013 The former Migos member launched a lawsuit against ChaseTheMoney, a producer who worked on his 2023 album Set It Off<\/em>, claiming the one-time collaborator has been demanding a large increase in fees and royalties long after the deal was done. The case is a \u201cdeclaratory judgment\u201d lawsuit, meaning Offset is preemptively seeking a court ruling that the original contract with Chase was valid and that he did nothing wrong by sticking to it.<\/p>\n

\n\tSONY MUSIC v. USC<\/strong> \u2013 Sony Music sued the University of Southern California (USC) for more than $25 million over claims that the college sports powerhouse illegally used songs by Michael Jackson, Beyonce and AC\/DC in TikTok and Instagram videos hyping its teams. The lawsuit, which claims USC was warned multiple times over several years, is the latest in a string of copyright cases filed against brands that use the vast music libraries provided by social media platforms for what rightsholders say are simply digital advertisements.<\/p>\n

\n\tCLINTON CLASH<\/strong> \u2013 George Clinton filed a lawsuit over allegations that his one-time business partner, Armen Boladian, fraudulently obtained the rights to the vast majority of the funk pioneer\u2019s music catalog. The case, which accuses Boladian and his Bridgeport Music of \u201cabusive, deceptive, and fraudulent practices,\u201d is only the latest time the music legend and his former agent have sparred in court. Boladian\u2019s attorneys told Billboard<\/em> that Clinton has \u201clost each and every time\u201d and that they would quickly seek to dismiss the latest case.<\/p>\n

\n\tDIDDY VIDEO<\/strong> \u2013 Attorneys for Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs\u2019 alleged in court filings that CNN \u201csubstantially altered\u201d and then destroyed the infamous 2016 surveillance video of him assaulting his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura. CNN quickly responded by flatly denying the charge, saying it \u201cnever altered the video and did not destroy the original copy of the footage.\u201d Prosecutors later reportedly revealed at a hearing that they have a recording of the original surveillance footage.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEFAMATION DISMISSED<\/strong> \u2013 A federal judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by Diana Copeland, a former assistant to R. Kelly, against Netflix and Lifetime over how she was portrayed in the documentary \u201cSurviving R. Kelly.\u201d The judge ruled that Copeland had failed to clear the \u201chigh bar\u201d for filing libel cases over newsworthy subjects: \u201cThe First Amendment demands \u2018adequate breathing space\u2019 for the free flow of ideas, especially about public figures on matters of public controversy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCASE CLOSED<\/strong> \u2013 The rapper Plies dropped a copyright lawsuit he\u2019d filed against Megan Thee Stallion, GloRilla, Cardi B and Souja Boy over accusations that the 2024 song \u201cWanna Be\u201d featured an uncleared sample. Filed last year, the case claimed that Megan and GloRilla stole Plies\u2019 material indirectly<\/em> by legally sampling a Soulja Boy song \u2013 a track that the lawsuit alleged had itself illegally<\/em> used material from his 2008 track \u201cMe & My Goons.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3213,441,5107,153,303,344,593,1206,1109],"class_list":["post-4781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-blasts","tag-drake","tag-karol","tag-law","tag-lawsuit","tag-live","tag-music","tag-nation","tag-umg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4781","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=4781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}