Entertainment lawyer Lloyd Stanbury asserts that Reggaeton producers and artists should fulfill their financial obligations and pay up for their alleged infringement on Steely and Clevie’s 1989 ‘Fish Market’ Riddim.
Over 1800 songs by latin and pop artists including Drake, Daddy Yankee, Karol G and Justin Bieber are alleged to have infringed the riddim produced by the duo in a sweeping lawsuit that has rocked the music industry.
“I have a very personal perspective on this because I managed Steely and Clevie for 12 years. If it weren’t for Steely and Clevie, it wouldn’t be called ‘Reggaeton’; it would be called ‘Ton,'” the international attorney remarked.
“They even sampled it,” he claimed, without specifying the exact songs that sampled the ‘Fish Market’ Riddim.
“The riddim, as we call it, ‘Fish Market,’ served many masters(artists). Shabba Ranks, the most famous, did ‘Dem Bow.’ Clevie informed me that some of the songs were actually samples of that riddim,” Stanbury revealed.
Two weeks ago, Judge Andre Birotte Jr. of the Central District Court in California, where the case is currently being tried, chose not to issue an immediate ruling after a two-hour debate with the defense’s motion seeking a dismissal of the 228 page ammended lawsuit filed by lawyers representing the Jamaican duo Steely & Clevie.
The judge inquired, “What’s the end game? Does this lawsuit run the risk of arguably stifling creativity? Look at the ripple effect this style has had on reggae, reggaeton, Latin music, Hip-Hop, and other genres. Does this stifle the creativity of all those genres?”
Stanbury, who admits to having worked with various reggae acts over the years on matters of intellectual property, insists that regardless of which genre is affected, the law must be followed.
“I believe that the law should be followed. If the law states that you can’t infringe on someone’s work, it doesn’t matter what you do with the work. If it creates a stir and spawns a new genre, it doesn’t matter to me if 500 people use it to create a genre.”
Lawyers from both sides clashed over whether a drum rhythm is eligible for copyright protection and even questioned how original the “Fish Market” riddim truly is. They also wondered why Browne and the heirs to Johnson’s estate waited until 2020 to register “Fish Market.”
The “Fish Market” was registered in the U.S. in 2020. A defense lawyer also pointed out that the plaintiffs never sued Denis (Dennis The Menace) Halliburton over his 1990 song “Pounder Riddim,” which famously copied the drum pattern from “Fish Market” and was widely sampled, allegedly by several defendants.
Judge Birotte also inquired whether “prior art,” meaning music that existed before the composition of “Fish Market,” should be considered in this case.
Steely and Clevie are also up against the statute of limitations on copyright claims, which states that they can only seek compensation for the three years prior to filing, even if they win rights to songs dating back to the 1990s.
“Even if they are successful, it’s not going to cover all those years. It’s about the principle and whatever compensation they can receive if they succeed,” Stanbury explained.
