A Florida jury has handed 2 Live Crew a big win, allowing them to reclaim copyrights in classic rap tracks in a long-running legal battle with Lil’ Joe Records.
BREAKING: A Miami federal jury on Wednesday cleared the way for famed hip-hop group 2 Live Crew to recapture ownership of their early 1990s music catalog, concluding a major copyright termination battle with Lil’ Joe Records. The dispute centered on Section 203(a) of the Copyright Act, which permits creators to terminate copyright transfers after 35 years—copyright legislation designed to protect artists who may have signed over rights under unfavorable terms. Surviving group member Luther “Luke” Campbell and the heirs of Mark Ross and Christopher Wong Won have been fighting in court for three years to terminate 1990 transfers of their master recordings to Skyywalker Records (later named Luke Records), the label once closely associated with the group.
Joseph (“Lil’ Joe”) Weinberger, a tax lawyer who served as Luke Records’ CFO and in-house counsel, previously bought the rights to 2 Live Crew’s master recordings out of bankruptcy for $800,000 and formed his own label, Lil’ Joe Records, to distribute them.
During the trial, which lasted about a week and a half, attorneys for Lil’ Joe Records argued that 2 Live Crew created the songs at issue while employees of their record label, and that the tracks were therefore “works made for hire” ineligible for copyright termination. Campbell testified earlier this week that payments to the group were per diems and advances, not wages, and that the members retained a share of profits from album sales, live performances, and merchandise—arrangements inconsistent with a typical label-employee relationship. The jury agreed, finding that the group did not record the songs as works made for hire.
