Michael is suing Universal for unpaid royalties

Michael has gone on the offensive and has filed suit against Universal, the current owner of Motown Records, for unpaid royalties. Here’s the latest: [quote]Pop superstar Michael Jackson, who went to war last year with Sony Music, is now suing his old record label seeking unpaid royalties and rights to his Motown catalog. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Motown Records and its Universal Music parent company of reneging on the terms of a 1980 agreement that settled an acrimonious split from Motown by Jackson and his brothers in 1976…According to the suit, Jackson had agreed to forfeit any royalties due for solo performances or Jackson 5 recordings that were released before their settlement and for the future re-release [re-issue] of recordings they made while at Motown. In return, the suit alleges, Motown agreed to pay Jackson royalties for any “best-of” compilations of his Motown recordings with the Jackson 5 or as a solo artist, as well as for newly issued albums of previously unreleased material. Despite significant release of this so-called “new product,” neither Motown nor its parent company has paid Jackson “a single dollar in royalties,” the suit says. If Universal/Motown re-released and [b]remastered[/b] material from the Michael Jackson/J5 era, they are supposed to negotiate a new royalty. When you digitally [b]remaster[/b] a song, it goes on a [u]NEW[/u] master tape which means it’s basically a brand new song. They will also own the new master tape for x amount of years. Michael settled and signed the rights away to anything that was released before 1979. [b]Motown has created NEW ALBUMS out of older music[/b] since then. This ‘new music’ is not covered under the royalties that he agreed to sign away the rights to when he and his brothers left Motown. Now if Motown reissued a Jackson 5 album like ABC, michael cannot get any royalty from it because he signed his rights away. It’s simply a reissue with the same catalogue number. However, if Motown released The Jackson 5 Greatest Hits [b]Remastered[/b] Edition with Bonus Material, then it’s considered a new album. [/quote] :arrow Sources: CNN Money // MJJF News Department Mike is about to kick some Universal ass. You can read the full article at the [url=http://forum.mjeol.com/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=4091&s=086aee63fe31c2b0c64f8de340302af2]MJEOL MJ NEWS forum[/url] and leave your comments.