{"id":9072,"date":"2025-12-16T06:05:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T06:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/rights-co-sues-over-doja-cat-sample-fees\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T06:05:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T06:05:19","slug":"rights-co-sues-over-doja-cat-sample-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/rights-co-sues-over-doja-cat-sample-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"Rights Co. Sues Over Doja Cat Sample Fees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tDionne Warwick is facing a lawsuit claiming the legendary singer has turned her back on a rights management company that negotiated her deal for the famed sample of her song \u201cWalk on By\u201d in Doja Cat\u2018s chart-topping hit \u201cPaint the Town Red.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a case filed Monday (Dec. 15), a company called Artists Rights Enforcement Corp. says it\u2019s repped Warwick for years \u201cat great effort and expense\u201d on tricky issues, ranging from the recent Doja sample to a 2002 lawsuit against Atlantic Records. But the company says she\u2019s now trying to back out.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cAfter decades of service, Ms. Warwick is now trying to evade paying Artists Rights hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars,\u201d the company\u2019s lawyers write. \u201cIn so doing, she has violated her contracts with Artists Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tArtists Rights says it provided its services to Warwick for years \u201cat no cost to her,\u201d assuming all the risk and upfront costs. In return, it says she agreed in 2002 to pay the company a 50 percent cut of any money recovered through the enforcement efforts \u2014 and to do so \u201cin perpetuity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSuch arrangements are not unheard of in the music industry, which confronts many artists, even legendary stars, with a thicket of complicated rights deals with a slew of different companies. They mirror contingency deals employed by some law firms, which represent plaintiffs for free with the hope of a big payoff in court.<\/p>\n

\n\tWarwick\u2019s arrangement worked well for both sides for years, according to Artists Rights, resulting in more than $2.5 million in revenue and a \u201csixtyfold\u201d increase in royalty distributions from her record companies, according to the lawsuit. But in recent years, Warwick has \u201cincreasingly expressed her desire to stop paying Artists Rights,\u201d the company says; in September, her lawyers allegedly reached out to \u201cterminate\u201d the agreement entirely.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cArtists Rights has performed all of its obligations under the contracts,\u201d the company\u2019s lawyers write. \u201cMs. Warwick has wrongfully and unreasonably repudiated the contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong its work for Warwick, Artists Rights says it handled a 2002 lawsuit against Atlantic and others over the royalties to her chart-topping 1974 hit \u201cThen Came You.\u201d When the case finally settled in 2004, and Warwick was \u201cfinally was able to receive some of the royalties that she justly deserved,\u201d the settlement deal signed by the star allegedly required that royalties be routed through Artists Rights.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe company says it later handled issues with SoundExchange, as well as a complicated matter involving Sony Music paying her royalties to the state of California to satisfy unpaid taxes, among other disputes. Then in 2023, Artists Rights says it handled the clearance of a sample of Warwick\u2019s \u201cWalk On By\u201d in Doja\u2019s \u201cPaint,\u201d which spent three weeks atop the Hot 100 and 37 overall weeks on the chart: \u201cMs. Warwick profited enormously from Artists Rights\u2019 work,\u201d the lawsuit reads.<\/p>\n

\n\tA rep for Warwick did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday. Doja Cat, Atlantic Records and others mentioned in the lawsuit were not named as defendants nor accused of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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