Heather Antoine recently published a Forbes article entitled, “Standing Up For Hip Hop: 2 Live Crew’s Decades-Long Legal Battles and Its Current Fight for Copyright Termination.” In her article, Heather examined 2 Live Crew’s history of legal battles, including their most recent fight with Lil’ Joe Records for the rights to their master recordings produced before 1995.
In 2020, the hip-hop group sent a formal notice to Lil’ Joe Records, terminating all previously acquired copyrights. In response, Lil’ Joe Records filed suit seeking a declaratory judgment that the rights could not be terminated. Both parties’ Motion for Summary Judgments are set to be heard in January to which Heather explained, “If termination is successful, any rights that were previously transferred would return to the creator of the copyrighted work. Termination rights are highly technical and specific.”
Read the full Forbes article here.
