‘Bad Girl’ defeats, decisively, infringement claim
When a Club Girl became a Bad Girl, a songwriter got in a delayed huff. But he and his lawyer ignored a fundamental aspect of copyright law, a legal point on which an appellate court just offered a pointed reminder: “co-authors of a joint work are each entitled to undivided ownership and the joint owner of a copyright cannot sue his co-owner for infringement.” That’s why crooner Usher Raymond is sitting prettier than ever as his 2004 derivative hit, Bad Girl, has won a decisive victory over an attack on it, with a ruling from the the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. U.S. Chief Judge Theodore A. Mckee wrote the decision on behalf of the three-judge panel, which included U.S. Circuit Judges D. Michael Fisher and Joseph A. Greenaway Jr. They not only sent packing Daniel V. Marino, a co-writer of Club Girl, a tune from which Usher’s successful record was derived, they also upheld sanctions against his counsel. What happened? A district court rebuke Marino appealed a summary judgement against his case by U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond, who tossed his suit against Usher and 19 other co-defendants, including some major record labels. The defendants also included William Guice and Dante Barton, who assisted in creating Club Girl and held with him its copyright. Marino claimed in his suit that he alone came up...
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