So get this. Michael “Shagg” Washington of Cypress Hill fame is suing Rockstar Games for $250 Million over wrongful use of his likeness. Apparently Rockstar met with Shagg in 2003 and adopted the tales of his youth involving gang life and bike riding as inspiration to create CJ, GTA San Andreas’s main character. It’s easy to laugh this off as a money grab on Shagg’s part but it basically breaks down like this: Read the rest of this entry »

While announcing this agreement out front in press conference, upstairs the legal department decided to reject a judge’s decision for 20-year-old Whitney Harper to pay $200 per song after having been found guilty in a copyright infringement case. Instead of collecting what would have been a total recovery of over $7400, they decided to let the jury decide what the payment should be since they wanted $750 per song. They want a trial case because they don’t agree with her “innocent infringement defense” instead of a speedy settlement and win. Read the rest of this entry »

The RIAA released their statement regarding their current duel with Muxtape, simply saying they had been in communications with Muxtape for months but the site “was hosting copies of copyrighted sound recordings without authorization from the copyright owners. Making these recordings available for streaming playback also requires authorization from the copyright owners.” Read the rest of this entry »