![]() I would have loved to learn the backstory behind all of this as the case unfolded, but sometimes as a defendant it’s better to reach a settlement quickly and quietly and move on. Ironically, the label’s offer wasn’t even enough to cover a digital download of the allegedly-infringing track on the iTunes store ($1.29). There are still a few things you can buy for a buck, but a copyright license typically isn’t one of them. The pièce de résistance, of course, was the one dollar offer. But legal issues aside, this was a case that had lousy optics from the jump, given that the parties apparently were negotiating a license until the label represented that it no longer planned to use the interview. ![]() They would have also had a pretty strong copyright preemption defense on the right of publicity claim. Had the case proceeded, I’d have expected the defendants to attempt to mount a fair use or implied consent argument on the copyright claim. Inoyo’s complaint alleged that 16 seconds of her recorded interview with Pop Smoke was included on the album track “Tunnel Vision (Outro),” representing 12% of the song. Inoyo registered the copyright in her interview and brought a complaint in Los Angeles federal court in November for copyright infringement along with a count for violation of her right of publicity. Notwithstanding the label’s alleged representation to Inoyo, one of the album tracks, “Tunnel Vision (Outro)” uses about 16 seconds of her recorded interview, and features her voice as well as that of Pop Smoke. ![]() Five months later, defendants released the rapper’s critically-acclaimed first album, “Shoot For the Stars, Aim for the Moon.” The album reached #1 on the Billboard 200, making Pop Smoke the first solo artist in hip hop history to have a posthumous album debut at the top of the charts. Tragically, Pop Smoke was shot and killed in a home invasion in February 2020. When she and her lawyer tried to negotiate, the label responded that it wouldn’t be using the interview after all. Portions of Victoria Inoyo’s 2019 interview with Pop Smoke were incorporated into a track on the rapper’s posthumous album.Īccording to Inoyo’s complaint (read here), Pop Smoke’s label reached out to Inoyo last year seeking her permission to incorporate portions of the interview into a track on Pop Smoke’s posthumous album, but only offered her a dollar for the rights. ![]()
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