{"id":8866,"date":"2025-12-03T00:39:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T00:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/supreme-court-music-case-johnny-cash-diddy-v-netflix-legal-recap\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T00:39:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T00:39:34","slug":"supreme-court-music-case-johnny-cash-diddy-v-netflix-legal-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/supreme-court-music-case-johnny-cash-diddy-v-netflix-legal-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Music Case, Johnny Cash, Diddy v. Netflix: Legal Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tTHE BIG STORY<\/strong>: It\u2019s almost 2026. Music lawyers are grappling with streaming fraud, deepfakes and trillion-dollar battles over artificial intelligence. And the U.S. Supreme Court is talking about \u2026 file sharing?<\/p>\n

\n\tNearly 30 years after the industry-shaking debut of Napster, online piracy is no longer the existential threat it once was. (Don\u2019t worry: We\u2019ve got robot musicians to worry about now.) Are a commercially significant number of people really still illegally downloading music files when humanity\u2019s full corpus of recorded music is available for $12?<\/p>\n

\n\tBut litigation moves at a glacial pace \u2014 and in the mid-2010s, piracy was still a big enough deal that the industry began cracking down on the internet service providers that enabled it. The biggest such case, filed in 2018 by Universal, Warner and Sony against Cox, eventually saw a jury award the labels a whopping $1 billion over piracy by Cox subscribers.<\/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\tNearly seven years later, that case is now before the Supreme Court \u2013 something of a legal time capsule from an earlier technological era, but one that the justices are worried could lead to \u201cextreme\u201d outcomes for our current one.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor more, go read our full breakdown of the case and this week\u2019s big oral arguments at the high court.<\/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\u2026\t<\/h3>\n

\n\tTALK THE LINE? <\/strong>The estate of Johnny Cash<\/a> is suing Coca-Cola over ads that allegedly mimic the country legend\u2019s voice \u2013 the first ever case to be brought under Tennessee\u2019s recently enacted ELVIS Act aimed at prohibiting voice cloning in the A.I. era.<\/p>\n

\n\tMEGAN THEE PLAINTIFF<\/strong> \u2013 A jury issued a verdict siding with Megan Thee Stallion<\/a> in her defamation lawsuit against celebrity gossip blogger Milagro Gramz<\/strong>, who the star claims acted as Tory Lanez<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cmouthpiece\u201d to spread misinformation after he shot Megan in 2020.<\/p>\n

\n\tDIDDY V. NETFLIX<\/strong> \u2013 Lawyers for Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs<\/strong> sent Netflix a cease-and-desist letter warning of litigation if the streamer releases a 50 Cent<\/a>-produced docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tCAN\u2019T SHAKE IT OFF <\/strong>\u2013 A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by hundreds of Taylor Swift<\/a> fans over Ticketmaster\u2019s botched sale of Eras Tour tickets three years ago, allowing the case to move ahead.<\/p>\n

\n\tTAKE IT EASY<\/strong> \u2013 A judge rejected a civil lawsuit against Don Henley<\/a> and Irving Azoff<\/strong> over the criminal prosecution of three men who allegedly tried to sell stolen Eagles<\/a> lyrics \u2013 a case that ended in a spectacular collapse in 2024.<\/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\"Marc<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tDOING TIME<\/strong> \u2013 Fugees rapper Pras Michel<\/strong> was sentenced to 14 years in prison following his conviction on illegal foreign lobbying and conspiracy charges linked to Jho Low<\/strong>, the Malaysian financier who masterminded the 1MDB corruption scandal.<\/p>\n

\n\tRESTAURANT ROW<\/strong> \u2013 Usher<\/a> is suing music producer Bryan-Michael Cox<\/strong> and other organizers of a failed Atlanta restaurant project, claiming they misused money he loaned and still owe him $700,000.<\/p>\n

\n\tMJ BIOPIC<\/strong> \u2013 Michael Jackson<\/a>\u2019s daughter Paris<\/strong> fired a legal broadside at the executors of her father\u2019s estate, claiming a looming Michael movie and other projects are designed to \u201cenrich and aggrandize\u201d them rather than build wealth for the family.<\/p>\n

\n\tFEE FIGHT<\/strong> \u2013 Nelly<\/a> is demanding that a lawyer for one of his former St. Lunatics bandmates repay more than $78,000 he spent in legal bills to defeat her \u201cfrivolous\u201d lawsuit over the rights to his debut album Country Grammar<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSTRONG WORDS\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 Live Nation and Ticketmaster filed a long-awaited motion for summary judgment seeking to end the Justice Department\u2019s sweeping antitrust case \u2013 claiming the feds used \u201cstrong words\u201d that do not have \u201ca lick of truth to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMORE ACCUSERS<\/strong> \u2013 Two more of Smokey Robinson<\/a>\u2019s former employees \u2014 a woman and a man \u2014 came forward with claims that the 85-year-old Motown singer sexually assaulted them, adding to four earlier accusers.<\/p>\n

\n\tLYRIC LITIGATION<\/strong> \u2013 GloRilla<\/a> won a ruling dismissing \u2014 for now, at least \u2014 a lawsuit that accused her of stealing a social media personality\u2019s viral catchphrase \u201call natural, no BBL\u201d with the lyrics to her 2024 song \u201cNever Find.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCASE DROPPED<\/strong> \u2013 An appeal filed by Making the Band<\/em> contestant Sara Rivers<\/strong> aimed at reviving her $60 million sexual assault lawsuit against Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs<\/strong> was abruptly dismissed \u2014 a move that came after her lawyers failed to file basic court forms.<\/p>\n

\n\tCASE TOSSED<\/strong> \u2013 A judge dismissed a civil lawsuit filed against Kevin Liles<\/strong> by an anonymous executive assistant who claimed she was sexually assaulted by the legendary record executive at Def Jam in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

\n\tGOING PUBLIC<\/strong> \u2013 StubHub is facing a class action claiming it hid key details from investors ahead of its $758 million initial public offering (IPO) in September.<\/p>\n

\n\tTRIAL SET<\/strong> \u2013 Aaron Carter<\/a>\u2019s family will head to trial next year in a wrongful death lawsuit against doctors and pharmacies that allegedly gave the late singer access to Xanax pills before he drowned in a bathtub in 2022.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE BIG STORY: It\u2019s almost 2026. Music lawyers are grappling with streaming fraud, deepfakes and trillion-dollar battles over artificial intelligence. And the U.S. Supreme Court is talking about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[294,872,143,296,7076,136,593,2710,4280,533],"class_list":["post-8866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-case","tag-cash","tag-court","tag-diddy","tag-johnny","tag-legal","tag-music","tag-netflix","tag-recap","tag-supreme"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8866","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=8866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}