Copyright Regulation
Salt-N-Pepa ask appeals court docket to reinstate copyright possession case
Inductees Sandra Denton aka Pepa and Cheryl James aka Salt of hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa carry out onstage through the 2025 Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame induction ceremony on the Peacock Theater on Nov. 8, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Picture by Theo Wargo/Getty Photos for RRHOF)
Hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa have requested an appellate court docket to reinstate their copyright reclamation lawsuit in opposition to their document label and to “push it” again to the trial decide.
Courthouse Information Service reported Tuesday that legal professionals for the group argued earlier than the 2nd U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals at New York that Senior U.S. District Choose Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York erred when she dismissed their case in January.
Cote had granted the Common Music Group’s movement to dismiss, ruling that the group—comprising singers Cheryl James and Sandra Denton—had given possession of their first 4 albums to their authentic label and had by no means owned the copyrights themselves.
Salt-N-Pepa’s lawyer, Richard Busch, argued earlier than the appellate panel that the decrease court docket had not utilized the regulation correctly.
“We’re making use of elementary ideas of regulation and the precise language of the agreements, whereas the district court docket and UMG have finished the other, ignoring essential language and definitions of the settlement,” stated Busch, who beforehand represented singer-songwriter and musician Marvin Gaye’s household in opposition to singer-songwriter Robin Thicke and musician Pharrell Williams in a landmark copyright case involving Thicke’s 2013 tune “Blurred Traces.”
The label, then again, argued that the choice ought to stand.
“Choose Cote appropriately granted UMG’s movement to dismiss as a result of, underneath the plain language of the settlement annexed to the criticism, there was no grant of copyright executed by plaintiffs—a elementary requirement of the termination provision of the Copyright Act,” stated Richard Mandel, an legal professional with Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman.
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