Pick a Day

Music History Events: Legal Issues

July 14, 2010 Ann Kirsten Kennis, whose Polaroid photo is on the cover of Vampire Weekend's #1 album Contra, files a $2 million lawsuit against the band, their label, and the photographer, claiming she never granted permission to use it. She later settles with the band.More

October 12, 2009 Michael Jackson's from-the-vaults track "This Is It" is released as a promotional single to accompany the concert documentary of the same name. It's the first release since his death in June.More

August 25, 2009 Chris Brown is sentenced to five years probation and six months hard labor for assaulting Rihanna in February 2009 the night of the Grammy awards. Brown is also ordered to stay away from her for the next five years and undergo a full year of domestic violence counseling.

July 27, 2009 A law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that Michael Jackson's personal doctor administered a powerful anesthetic to help him sleep, and authorities believe the drug is what killed the Pop singer.

July 23, 2009 Further to Nas and Kelis squabbling over child support and divorce for the past few months, with both sides accusing each other of infidelity, Los Angeles Superior Court orders Nas to pay Kelis nearly $40,000 in monthly support, with Kelis receiving $30,471 in spousal support per month, and the couple's son receiving $9,027 per month.

July 3, 2009 Algerian music star Cheb Mami (real name Ahmed Khelifati Mohammed) is sentenced by a French court to five years in prison for abducting his former girlfriend and trying to force her to have an abortion. Mami is best known in America for his collaboration with Sting on the song "Desert Rose."

March 17, 2009 Instead of getting boozed up on the streets like most people on St. Patrick's Day, Amy Winehouse gets sloppy at her court hearing in London to face charges that she attacked a fan at a charity event in 2008.

September 9, 2008 Former Raspberries lead and solo star Eric Carmen is arrested in his hometown of Cleveland on DUI charges. He will be sentenced to six months in jail but will only serve 30 days.

June 24, 2008 A blogger who had thought it would be a good idea to leak some finished tracks from Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy receives a visit from the FBI and a cease-and-desist letter.

June 11, 2008 Nancy Sinatra appears before the US Congress pleading for legislation that would require all performers, not just songwriters, to get paid for songs played on commercial analog radio.

May 23, 2008 Veteran rapper Ricky "Slick Rick" Walters receives a full pardon from New York's Governor David Paterson for the attempted murders of two men in 1991, ending a long legal saga.

May 21, 2008 Lou Pearlman, manager of Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, is sentenced to 25 years in prison on four federal charges: two counts of conspiracy, money laundering and using false statements in a bankruptcy proceeding.

May 13, 2008 The Turtles' Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, better known as "Flo and Eddie," sue Capitol Records for allowing Ice Cube to sample the group's 1972 song "Buzzsaw" for Cube's 1992 hit "Jackin' For Beats."

May 13, 2008 Rapper Remy Ma is sentenced to eight years in prison for assault, weapon possession and attempted coercion in conjunction with the shooting of a woman outside a Manhattan nightclub.

April 18, 2008 Foxy Brown is released from Riker's Island jail after serving an eight month sentence for battery.

April 4, 2008 Procol Harum's Gary Brooker wins an appeal in London to an earlier ruling, which stated that Harum organist Matthew Fisher was entitled to 40 percent of the royalties from the band's 1967 smash "A Whiter Shade Of Pale." Though the new ruling notes that Fisher wrote the organ line and should be co-credited, it also overturns the royalty award by noting that Fisher waited 38 years to sue.

March 27, 2008 A jury convicts rapper Remy Ma of assault charges stemming from a shooting outside a Manhattan night club.

March 14, 2008 In London, Ex-Foundations member Peter MacBeth is sentenced to six years on pedophilia and sexual assault charges.

October 17, 2007 The state of California announces that Dionne Warwick owes nearly $2.67 million in back taxes.

October 5, 2007 A federal jury finds a Minnesota woman guilty of online music file sharing through the public service KaZaa, fining her $220,000.

September 26, 2007 Phil Spector's first trial in the murder case of Lana Clarkson in 2003 ends in a hung jury, with 10 guilty votes and two not guilty. A retrial begins the next year, and he is eventually found guilty.

August 7, 2007 The Isley Brothers' Ron Isley begins serving a 37-month sentence for tax evasion. His request for a reduced sentence because of his health issues doesn't fly with a judge who calls him a "serial tax avoider." The IRS claims that Isley failed to pay $3.1 million in taxes.

August 5, 2007 DNA tests prove that at least two of the 12 claimants to the estate and fortune of recently deceased soul legend James Brown are found to be legitimate. His will had already named six known children.

May 31, 2007 Rob Grill, lead singer of The Grass Roots, is arrested for illegal possession of prescription painkillers at his home in Mount Dora, Florida.

May 15, 2007 Ike Turner spends a day in a Los Angeles jail over a mistaken warrant.

February 1, 2007 Wayne Fontana, famous for fronting Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, pours gasoline on the car of a bailiff sent to collect a debt, and sets the vehicle on fire. At his hearing in November, Fontana shows up dressed as Lady Justice, complete with sword and scales. The judge is not amused, sentencing him to 11 months in prison, and stating: "He has come dressed as a fool and he wants to act like a fool - I hope they give him a prison uniform at Nottingham Prison to keep him warm."

November 16, 2006 The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sends 417 more letters to sixteen college administrators threatening mass lawsuits if file-sharing is found happening on university servers.

October 5, 2006 Jeffrey Borer, owner of the company that sold Michael Jackson his private Gulfstream jet, is sentenced to six months in prison for ordering employee Arvel Jett Reeves to install two video cameras in it in order to catch Jackson saying something for which he could be blackmailed.

September 27, 2006 Bowing to the inevitable, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, pulls his legislation reforming the nation's music licensing laws from the congressional agenda, saying he doesn't see how it could get through Congress.

September 18, 2006 Willie Nelson's tour bus is stopped near Lafayette, Louisiana, and Nelson, along with four members of his band, are arrested for possession of marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.