The copyright infringement case filed by dancehall pioneers Steely and Clevie, against major record companies including UMG and Warner, along with several artists and their affiliated publishing companies is heating up.
The riddim making duo submitted a corrected version of the copyright documents for the 1990s dancehall hit song “Dem Bow” by Shabba Ranks in a Los Angeles Court on Friday.
The document shows that April 13, 1990 was the date of completion for the “Dem Bow” song jointly owned by Cleveland Constantine Browne (Clevie), Wycliffe Johnson (Steely) and Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon (Shabba Ranks). This is the first time Shabba is being brought into the suit, but he is not yet named as a plaintiff. Shabba co-authored the “Dem Bow” song as he was not “work for hire.”
The reason for the late lodging of copyright according to court documents obtain by WMV was because, the “corrected registration was received today (Friday) from the U.S. Copyright Office, so Plaintiffs could not have submitted it any earlier and Defendants are not prejudiced by the timing of the submission.”
In June, Pryor Cashman the firm representing Daddy Yankee and Karol G, jointly requested of a federal judge to dismissthe sprawling copyright lawsuit that accuses them of infringing on a single 1989 dancehall riddim called “Fish Market.”
The “Fish Market riddim” is what serves as the basis for the “dem bow” rhythm used in countless reggaeton tracks according to the suit.. Additionally, Cleveland “Clevie” Browne and Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson, claim that their riddim has been sampled or interpolated in over 1,800 songs since its release, amounting to acts of copyright infringement.
Cashman, argued that the plaintiffs are effectively attempting to assert ownership over an entire genre of music by claiming exclusive rights to the rhythm and other “unprotectable musical elements” commonly found in reggaeton-style songs.
The law firm which has offices in New York, Los Angeles and Miami was the team that successfully defended Ed Sheeran in his copyright infringement cases. They contend that after three decades of inaction, Steely & Clevie et. al are “unjustly seeking to monopolize an entire style of popular music.”
In the 33 page list of Reggaeton songs that were brought into evidence Daddy Yankee alone is accused of copying the Fish Market composition on over 43 songs including his 41x Latin Platinum hit Con Calma with Canadian dancehall deejay Snow which interpolates Snow’s dancehall hit Informa. Con Calma also has a remix featuring Katy Perry.
and Steely Jonhson – credit : droits réservés
Brazilian singer Annita, has 14 songs on the evidence list named Exhibit A.
More than 107 summonses have been served to other defendants including latin superstar Juan Luis Morera Luna p/k/a Wisin and Drake real name Aubrey Graham. Both artists applied to dismiss requests for the artists to come to court to answer to the infringements on the grounds that they were not served at their right addresses.
Bad Bunny and Drake‘s MÍA which has 1.4 billion YouTube views is also on the list.
According to the documents obtained by WMV, evidence put forward showed that the Grammy winning duo of Wisin & Yandel are accused of sampling the Fish Market Riddim on almost 300 songs.
This is of the biggest US copyright lawsuit cases in the music industry with over 120 lawyers arguing for their clients including 7 representing Steelie and Clevie. If the case is won by the plaintiffs, The Statute of Limitations for Copyright Infringement is Three Years. Meaning the defendants would only be required to may amounts unto three years prior to filing according to US Copyright law.
The case was previously filed three different times; first in the California Central District court in April 2021, then resubmitted twice last year according to the court documents obtained by WMV.
WMV also discovered that the Fish Market riddim was not registered by Steely & Clevie until 2021.
That fact should be of no consequence however according to Reggaeton producer Maffio who escaped the lawsuit primarily because he said he never uses samples. The Miami resident told WMV that latin artists should pay homage to Jamaican dancehall pioneers because the evidence of use is obvious over the years.
“You gotta pay homage to Jamaica, you gotta pay homage to and respect to the people that really started this. Jamaica has a very solid music culture, so they don’t need to prove who made it or did it first, Jamaica is the root,” Maffio stated.
The Celebration singer who has produced the biggest song on YouTube by a Marley family member, “the latin culture needs to pay more homage to Jamaica and to the artist from Jamaica since the riddim that we do right now comes from there.”
“It’s a lack of knowledge, at that time they didn’t legally understand what they were doing. I don’t get loops from nobody I don’t sample, I create my own thing,” The Climax producer continued.
With a sigh of relief Maffio assessed that reggaeton artists are making a lot of money from the music they did not pay for. “You are making so much money from something someone else created and I don’t think that’s fair. Morally you don’t do that. Thank God I am out of that lawsuit, thank God,” he said.
New York attorney JoAnn Squillace in an interview with WMV said, “What probably will also be an issue in the Steelie and Clevie case is there is no copyright of Fish Market in the United States(prior to 2020-21) and in order to sue, you need a United States Copyright of the song that you are claiming that has been infringed upon, up until 2021, by law that’s going to limit their damages because the copyright came after the alleged infringement. That’s one challenge for them.”
JoAnn and her business partner Stephen Drummond Esq. filed a similar groundbreaking $300 million lawsuit against Miley Cyrus and got an undisclosed settlement back in 2018.
“It’s a long time 1989 till now is quite a lot of years, and in the world of someone taking, if between 1989 and now three other people took their work, and then later on someone took that work that was taken, you might have a challenge demonstrating that the final person who took it some 20 years or 30 years later actually took it from your original work and not from someone else,” added Drummond.
