{"id":7779,"date":"2025-09-11T16:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T16:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/barry-manilow-damon-dash-twenty-one-pilots-more-music-law-news\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T16:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T16:29:07","slug":"barry-manilow-damon-dash-twenty-one-pilots-more-music-law-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/barry-manilow-damon-dash-twenty-one-pilots-more-music-law-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Barry Manilow, Damon Dash, Twenty One Pilots & More Music Law News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tTHE BIG STORY: <\/strong>Barry Manilow\u2019s lawyers have been busy. Last summer, they got into a trans-Atlantic brawl with Hipgnosis over $1.5 million in allegedly unpaid bonuses from his catalog sale. Now they\u2019re launching an appeal to secure \u201cCopacabana\u201d trademarks.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe star\u2019s attorneys are seeking protection over a number of brand names tied to the 1978 megahit, including \u201cBarry Manilow\u2019s Copacabana Hotel & Casino\u201d and \u201cBarry Manilow\u2019s Copa.\u201d It\u2019s unclear exactly what\u2019s planned \u2013 and his reps wouldn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAfter a bit of digging, it turns out Manilow has actually been trying to get \u201cCopacabana\u201d trademarks for decades. But such efforts have so far been unsuccessful, thanks largely to one big problem: The name is already legally controlled by the owners of THE<\/em> Copacabana, the legendary Manhattan nightclub referenced in Manilow\u2019s song.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the whole strange story, go read the entire article here.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019re reading 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. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, go subscribe here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

\n\tTEAR THE SUIT OFF <\/strong>\u2013 George Clinton won a federal court ruling throwing out a lawsuit that claimed the late Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell should be credited as a co-creator of the funk collective\u2019s 1970s catalog. In response, his lawyer offered a legendary statement: \u201cThe Lord said, let there be funk \u2014 and no pretenders can shut it down or take it away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDAME DASH DEBT<\/strong> \u2013 Damon Dash filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, saying he has just over $4,000 to his name and owes more than $25 million in tax bills, child support and court judgments. Dash, who co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records with Jay-Z, auctioned off his one-third interest the label last year to help pay those mounting debts.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Dame<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tFAKE MERCH <\/strong>\u2013 Twenty One Pilots filed a lawsuit against the Chinese e-commerce giant Temu over allegations that the \u201cunethical\u201d company is flooding the market with cheap knockoffs of the band\u2019s merchandise. The \u201cStressed Out\u201d duo is the latest musical act to use the legal system to crack down on alleged sellers of counterfeit gear, following cases filed on behalf of Benson Boone and Tate McRae last month.<\/p>\n

\n\tMUSIC LAW TRACKER <\/strong>\u2013 Billboard<\/em> launched a handy legislative cheat-sheet to keep track of all pending bills before the U.S. Congress that could impact the music industry, including AI regulations, protections for rap lyrics, royalty reforms and more. The list, which will be updated regularly, features key details of each bill and its current status in the sometimes-confusing lawmaking process.<\/p>\n

\n\tAI SETTLEMENT<\/strong> \u2013 Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a lawsuit over allegations that the AI firm illegally used millions of books to train its AI models \u2013 a deal that came as major music companies and artists litigate their own similar suits against AI firms, including one against Anthropic. The deal was sparked by a key ruling this summer, which sided with Anthropic on crucial questions of \u201cfair use\u201d but also left the company facing billions in damages. The settlement, which will lock in the former and avoid the risk of the latter, was thus something of a strategic no-brainer for a company recently valued at $183 billion. But a judge has already expressed reservations about the deal.<\/p>\n

\n\tLYRICS LITIGATION<\/strong> \u2013 A federal judge ruled that Musixmatch must continue to face an antitrust lawsuit over allegations that the company is trying to monopolize the market for providing lyrics to streamers like Spotify. Filed by rival LyricFind, the case claims Musixmatch inked an \u201cunprecedented\u201d exclusive deal with Warner Music Group, shutting out competing companies from that label\u2019s huge catalog.<\/p>\n

\n\tYNW PLEA DEAL<\/strong> \u2013 A co-defendant in rapper YNW Melly\u2019s double-murder case, YNW Bortlen, took a plea deal from Florida prosecutors, avoiding a jury trial a day before it was set to begin. The lenient deal \u2013 which will see Bortlen serve less than 10 years in prison rather than a possible life sentence and won\u2019t require him to testify against Melly \u2014 left even the judge impressed: \u201cI\u2019m not quite sure how your lawyers managed to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tCOPYRIGHTED CLICH\u00c9?<\/strong>\u2013 GloRilla asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming she stole the lyric \u201cnatural, no BBL\u201d from a viral catchphrase, arguing that nobody can copyright that kind of short and \u201ccliched\u201d expression. Her lawyers cited seven other songs that had each featured a similar phrase, a reference to \u201cBrazilian butt lift\u201d surgery.<\/p>\n

\n\tFIREAID PROBE <\/strong>\u2013 After months of accusations and internet conspiracy theories, a new report said FireAid committed no misconduct in its distribution of $100 million raised during a pair of all-star benefit concerts after the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January. The report, the result of an independent investigation by the law firm Latham & Watkins, said the money went to organizations that directly aided fire victims.<\/p>\n

\n\tDAMAGES DEMAND<\/strong> \u2013 One of Jimmie Allen\u2019s alleged victims asked a federal judge to award her nearly $1.8 million in damages, a month after the country singer was held legally liable for sexually assaulting and secretly filming her in a Las Vegas hotel room: \u201cDefendants\u2019 predatory conduct \u2026 is not the kind of conduct tolerated in a civilized society,\u201d her lawyers wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tTHA SETTLEMENT<\/strong> \u2013 Darius \u201cDeezle\u201d Harrison, a producer on Lil Wayne\u2019s hit 2008 Tha Carter III<\/em>, reached a settlement with Universal Music Group to resolve a lawsuit claiming the music giant owed him more than a decade\u2019s worth of performance royalties for the chart-topping album.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFLAWED INTERPRETATION\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 SoundExchange launched its appeal of a ruling last month that, somewhat shockingly, said the organization doesn\u2019t have the power to file lawsuits to enforce its royalty demands. It has big implications: SoundExchange has regularly employed litigation for years to secure hundreds of millions of dollars from those who allegedly failed to pay up for sound recording royalties. In a statement, the group said the appeal would overturn an \u201cerroneous ruling and flawed interpretation\u201d of federal copyright law.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"SoundExchange\"<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tTHEFT SHOP <\/strong>\u2013 A 29-year-old man named Patrick Maisonet was charged with ten felonies over his alleged robbery of Macklemore\u2019s Seattle home in June, as well as a slew of other burglaries targeting the houses of legendary Seattle athletes like baseball Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki and retired football star Richard Sherman.<\/p>\n

\n\tPRISCILLA SUIT UPDATE<\/strong> \u2013 Priscilla Presley\u2019s ex-business partners added more claims to their lawsuit against her, including about the late Elvis Presley. The filing, which came in a case that claimed she \u201cpulled the plug\u201d on her own daughter, alleged that Prscilla \u201cexerted undue pressure on Elvis, pushing him to his death.\u201d Her lawyers quickly mocked the claims, likening them to conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination and the moon landing: \u201cTake off the aluminum foil hat and face reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSAMPLE SPAT <\/strong>\u2013 Ye (formerly Kanye West) was hit with a lawsuit claiming he sampled a 1975 soul song without permission on the song \u201cLord Lift Me Up\u201d from his 2022 album Donda 2<\/em>. Such claims are nothing new for Kanye: The controversial rapper has been sued more than a dozen times for failing to clear samples or interpolations, including a high-profile case from the estate of Donna Summer.<\/p>\n

\n\tAI LAWYERING? <\/strong>\u2013 Fat Joe accused a lawyer for his former hypeman Terrance \u201cT.A.\u201d Dixon of sloppily using artificial intelligence to write legal briefs in their ongoing courtroom battle \u2013 including by citing \u201challucinations\u201d of legal cases that \u201csimply don\u2019t exist.\u201d The allegations were made against the same opposing lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, who was arrested this summer for allegedly hitting Fat Joe\u2019s process server with his car.<\/p>\n

\n\tDANCE DANCE RESOLUTION<\/strong> \u2013 Kelley Heyer, a TikTok influencer who says she created the viral dance to Charli xcx\u2019s hit song \u201cApple,\u201d reached a settlement with Roblox to resolve claims that the gaming platform sold her choreography to its users without permission. The case was one of many filed over short dance moves featured as so-called \u201cemotes\u201d in video games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE BIG STORY: Barry Manilow\u2019s lawyers have been busy. Last summer, they got into a trans-Atlantic brawl with Hipgnosis over $1.5 million in allegedly unpaid bonuses from his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2945,2849,3196,153,2946,593,310,6280,6758],"class_list":["post-7779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-barry","tag-damon","tag-dash","tag-law","tag-manilow","tag-music","tag-news","tag-pilots","tag-twenty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7779","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=7779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}