This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: The owners of the rights to the “Space Jam” theme song are demanding payment for a song that’s been heavily used in internet memes and online mashups; Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion beat a copyright lawsuit over ‘WAP’; Karol G and Tiësto are sued for infringement over a little-known song; and much more.
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THE BIG STORY: Everybody Get Up, It’s Time To Sue Now
The theme song to the movie Space Jam, performed by Florida hip-hop trio Quad City DJ’s, is a mid-1990s classic, with bass-heavy dance beats that instantly call to mind Michael Jordan and the characters from Looney Tunes squaring off in a basketball game against alien invaders. I know you can hear it now: Here’s your chance, do your dance, at the Space Jammmm….
But it’s also, weirdly, a mid-2000s classic. Somewhere in the hazy early days of social media, the theme embarked on a bizarre second act as a meme – the basis for hundreds or thousands of absurdist “slam remix” videos that combined the song with other audio and video, often inexplicably featuring NBA star Charles Barkley. By the early 2010s, the trend had largely faded away – most memes do. But many slam remixes still exist on YouTube, and whole websites dedicated to the art of slamming are still live in 2023.
Now, that might be something of a problem — because, two decades later, the Space Jam theme song has new owners who are carrying out an increasingly active legal campaign to demand payment from people who used it.
Watson Music Group, a company that bought the rights to “Space Jam” the song in 2019 from its three original songwriters, has filed three federal lawsuits in the last three months, accusing companies of infringing its copyrights by using the song on the internet without permission. It’s also sent legal threats to an unknown number of other alleged infringers, arguing that unauthorized users must pay a “retroactive license” to avoid legal liability.
For more about the legal campaign over the rights to “Space Jam,” go read our full story, featuring details about the latest lawsuit and a response from the company’s lawyer.
Other top stories this week…
CARDI & MEGAN BEAT COPYRIGHT CASE – A federal judge tossed out a lawsuit accusing Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion of stealing the lyrics to their smash hits “WAP” and “Thot Shit” from an earlier track called “Grab Em by the P—-,” ruling that short lyrics like “p—- so wet” were simply too unoriginal to be covered by copyright law.
EARTH, WIND & FIRE NAME LAWSUIT – A tribute band that was sued earlier this year by Earth, Wind & Fire for trademark infringement is firing back with a bold counterargument: That the famed R&B act has actually abandoned any intellectual property rights to its name.
NICK CARTER ABUSE LITIGATION – The Backstreet Boys member, who is facing multiple accusations of sexual assault from the 2000s, was hit with a third such lawsuit, this time from an unnamed woman who claims he assaulted her when she was 15 years old. But Carter also won a ruling allowing him to proceed with a defamation countersuit, which claims he’s victim of “conspiracy” orchestrated by his accusers.
KAROL’S COPYRIGHT CLASH – Karol G and Tiësto were hit with a copyright lawsuit over their song “Don’t Be Shy,” filed by a Cuban-American songwriter (Rene Lorente) who says their track features elements that are “practically identical” to his earlier tune called “Algo Diferente.”
TEXAS DRAG LAW BLOCKED – Following similar rulings in Tennessee and Florida, a federal judge in Texas blocked the state from enforcing a newly-enacted law restricting drag performances, ruling that the law likely violates the First Amendment.
