Marley family lose millions in copyright infringement lawsuit

The family of global reggae icon Bob Marley have lost a copyright infringement lawsuit that could have awarded millions more to Marley’s estate. The suit was against the recording industry giant, Universal Music Group (UMG) headquartered in New York City, for exploiting the music from five of Marley’s albums.

Earlier this week a federal judge, Denise Cote, in New York, ruled that copyrights to the albums, Catch A Fire, Burnin, Natty Dread, Rastaman Vibration and Exodus recorded by Marley and his band the Wailers between 1973 and 1977 for Island Records gave UMG the rights of ownership of the recordings. In the ruling the judge stated under the US copyright law the recordings were “works made for hire” and therefore belonged to UMG.

Marley’s widow, Rita, and children, owners and partners of Fifty-Six Hope Road Music Company had charged UMG with intentionally withholding royalties from the company and disregarding a 1995 agreement assigning them rights under the original recording agreements between the two entities, according to court documents.

The lawsuit also charged UMG for the misuse of Marley’s music as cellular phone ringtones by some mobile phone companies.

According to Georgia Desllaines, a Tampa copyright consultant, “The “works made for hire” clause is a very fuzzy aspect of the US Copyright Law. She explained if an artist recorded his own music on his own accord that music belongs to the artist if he copyrighted the music. Also, if the artist recorded the music for a company, like Marley did for Island Record, but had an agreement that the artist owns the music and the lyrics, but contracted the recording company as producers and/or distributors, the artist also has a good claim to ownership f the music. However, if the artist had no copyrights agreement with the recording company/producer, a judge could rule that the artist was hired by the recording company to record the music, therefore the music is owned by the recording company.”

Judge Cote in her ruling wrote that each of the recording agreements with Island Record provided that the sound recordings of the albums were the ‘absolute property’ of Island Record, and “Whether Marley would have recorded his music even if he had not entered the recording agreements with Island is beside the point.”

UMG, the world’s leading music company operates a recorded music and music publishing business and acquires and distributes recorded music. According to the company’s website it represents 98 percent of the international music market, including Island Records, a British company.

Marley who died in 1981, did not leave a will, but his widow, Rita, was awarded control of the estate and named the administrative general. A few years ago Forbes Magazine estimated Marley’s recording earned some US$6 million annually, and his record catalogue valued over US$100 million.

However the estate has been the subject of several lawsuits. One of the most contentious was one filed by Aston “Family Man” Barrett a bassist and his brother drummer Carton Barrett who were members of the Wailers band in the recording of some of the albums involved in the UMG law suit.

Shortly after Marley’s death the Barrett’s sued Island Records for back-royalties owed to the Wailers band. In a 1994 settlement, Island Records paid J$115 million. Again in 2002 Aston Barrett (Carlton died in 1987) filed another lawsuit claiming the Barrett’s were owed J$7 billion in royalties from the Marley estate for a 1974 contract with Island Record. However the claim was dismissed by a London Court, after Rita argued against it. The judge ruled that by accepting the 1994 claim Barrett had relinquished his rights to further settlement.

A close family friend of Aston Barrett said (on condition of anonymity) said, “It is very ironic that Rita has lost a lawsuit for millions in which some of the albums included the work of Aston and Carlton who also lost millions to the Marley estate.”

Several prominent Jamaican popular artists, including Peter Tosh, Dennis Brown, Garnette Silk, and Delroy Wilson died intestate. A Miami entertainment attorney said, “If Bob had taken care to prepare a sound, tight will, most likely his assets would have been protected, and all these lawsuits for and against his assets would be mute. Without wills these artists whose works lives on after their death, expose their surviving relatives to unnecessary lawsuits.”