Pick a Day

Music History Events: Legal Issues

March 5, 1999 Trauma Entertainment files a $40 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against the members of Bush for failure to deliver their next album.

February 25, 1999 Prince, who is now using an unpronounceable symbol for his moniker, sues nine websites to prevent unauthorized downloads. He takes another stand in 2007 when he sues other sites to remove images of him.

February 18, 1999 Pop-star-turned-disc-jockey Bob Geldof, organizer of Live Aid, wins substantial but undisclosed damages from The Sun newspaper in London in a libel case over a story that falsely alleged he had "groped, fondled and kissed" a nightclub stripper.

February 16, 1999 Aretha Franklin responds to a story in the Detroit Free Press claiming that 30 lawsuits have been filed against her seeking payment, calling it "malicious and vicious." Franklin, who handles business affairs herself, refuses to use a manager.

December 8, 1998 The FBI opens its 1,300 page file on Frank Sinatra to the public.

November 23, 1998 A businessman convicted of second-degree murder in the drowning of the ex-wife of Jackson 5 member Tito Jackson is sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Donald Bohana, 61, listens as Jackson family members urge a lengthy prison sentence for the boyfriend convicted of killing Delores "DeeDee" Jackson.

November 19, 1998 Songwriters/producers/musicians Vada Nobles, Johari Newton, Tejumold Newton, and Rasheem Pugh file a lawsuit against Lauryn Hill, alleging that the Ruffhouse/Columbia artist failed to give them proper writing and producing credits or pay them royalties for their work on the hit album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

November 9, 1998 Michael Jackson settles a lawsuit over stories and pictures in the London Daily Mirror that say his face had been disfigured by cosmetic surgery. "The photographs were taken honestly and were not tampered with, but the Mirror has since met with the plaintiff in person and acknowledges that the photographs do not accurately represent the plaintiff's true appearance," says a lawyer for the publisher.

October 29, 1998 Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra is sued by his bandmates over unpaid royalties. They eventually win the case and gain control of the group's songs and the rights to the name. In 2001, they re-form with a new lead singer replacing Biafra, who never re-unites with the band.

October 29, 1998 Singer/guitarist Brian Setzer files suit against Ken Kinnally, a former member of Setzer's pre-Stray Cats group the Bloodless Pharaohs. Setzer alleges that, without his knowledge or consent, Kinnally licensed 1978 studio tracks and 1979 live recordings to Collectibles Records, which issued an album titled Brian Setzer & the Bloodless Pharaohs.

October 26, 1998 US Federal courts refuse to issue an injunction against makers of mp3 players, one which the RIAA has been pushing for in light of rampant piracy.

October 23, 1998 The "White Rabbit" case comes to a close when a court supports the superintendent at Fort Zumwalt High School in St. Louis, and his decision that the marching band cannot play the song in their act as it contains drug references.

October 23, 1998 Eddie Nichols (of Royal Crown Revue) is arrested in Toledo, Ohio, for allegedly punching a sheriff in a diner. Nichols is charged with a felony and held without bail over a weekend.

October 15, 1998 MCA Records Inc. files a breach-of-contract lawsuit against New Edition members Ralph Tresvant, Johnny Gill, Ricardo Bell, Michael Bivins, and Ronald DeVoe for alleged failure to deliver albums.

October 8, 1998 Bruce Springsteen gives evidence in London's High Court in his case against Masquerade Music over that company's attempt to release some of his early '70s recordings in the UK. The artist says that he was living hand-to-mouth at the time the songs in question were written, relying on handouts from Mike Appel, his co-manager at the time.

October 6, 1998 Loud Records and members of Loud/RCA rap group the Wu-Tang Clan are sued by a woman claiming battery, false imprisonment, and defamation, among other allegations. Bridget Gray, an actress and dancer, seeks compensatory and punitive damages for an August 1997 incident in which she alleges that members of the Wu-Tang Clan made derogatory comments and held her against her will while she was hired to appear in a video for the group.

October 6, 1998 Gospel star Kirk Franklin and Interscope Records are hit with a $75 million lawsuit by Linda Searight, the founder of God's Property, a gospel group that has recorded and performed with Franklin. Searight claims she was cheated out of payment for her involvement in God's Property.

October 5, 1998 Without comment, the Supreme Court refuses to throw out a suit charging that composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber copied from another songwriter for the "Phantom Song" from his Phantom of the Opera. The case stems from a 1990 suit filed by U.S. liturgical composer Ray Repp that claims Webber's song copies Repp's 1978 composition "Till You."

September 24, 1998 Former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler, 33, is sentenced to 150 days in jail for beating two women he dated and for violating his probation from an earlier domestic violence conviction.

September 15, 1998 Coolio is arrested in Lawndale, California, and cited for driving on the wrong side of the road with an expired license. He is also charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of marijuana. His trouble with the law doesn't hurt his TV career, as he makes frequent appearances on shows like Fear Factor and Hollywood Squares.

July 24, 1998 Country legend Tanya Tucker files suit against her label, Capitol Nashville, for $300,000, claiming the label has not promoted her properly.

May 20, 1998 Tommy Lee of Motley Crue is sentenced to six months in jail and three years' probation stemming from an incident three months earlier when he got in a fight with his wife, Pamela Anderson Lee. Goes to jail that evening and serves three months before he is released.

May 14, 1998 George Michael pleads no contest in Beverly Hills Municipal Court to committing a lewd act in a park restroom.

March 12, 1998 Lawyers for Korn send a cease-and-desist demand to a Michigan assistant principal who suspended a student for wearing a Korn T-shirt and told a reporter the band was "indecent, vulgar, obscene." The band also arranges for shirts to be given away outside the school.

February 24, 1998 Pamela Anderson Lee calls 911 after getting in a heated altercation with her husband, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, at their Malibu home. Tommy is arrested and spends three months in jail for spousal abuse.

November 21, 1997 Coolio and seven members of his band 40 Thevz are arrested and charged with theft and assault in a boutique in the town of Boblingen, Germany. The eight are charged with assaulting a female clerk in a clothing store and stealing clothing worth $2,000.

November 18, 1997 In Bristol, England, Gary Glitter is detained and questioned by police after a computer store repairing the glam star's computer finds it loaded with child pornography.

November 3, 1997 In Santa Monica, California, Billy Preston is sentenced to three years in prison for cocaine possession and violating parole.

October 30, 1997 The Senate passes the music industry's "La Cienega" bill by a voice vote. The bill closes a loophole in the 1909 copyright Act that put into peril most pre-1978 music copyrights.

October 22, 1997 In Italy, the Big 5 record labels - BMG, EMI, PolyGram, Sony and Warner Music - are found guilty of establishing a price-fixing cartel and fined the equivalent of $4.5 million.