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14 March 2016Copyright

Beastie Boys secures $600k in attorneys’ fees

US band Beastie Boys has won almost $600,000 in attorneys’ fees after a US court said a copyright infringement claim asserted against the band was “clearly without merit”.

Under dispute were the tracks “Shadrach” and “Car Thief” which both appeared on the Paul’s Boutique album, released in 1989, and its 2009 re-mastered version.

TufAmerica, the owner of the hip hop label Tuff City Music Group, complained that both songs used samples of works by music group Trouble Funk.

The company filed a lawsuit at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2012.

However, in a judgment handed down in 2015, the district court dismissed the claims and granted Beastie Boys a summary judgment after finding that TufAmerica lacked the standing to sue.

Judge Alison Nathan ruled that a 2012 agreement between one of the members of Trouble Funk and TufAmerica did not grant an exclusive licence to the music label.

Under US law, only parties with an exclusive licence to a work can sue for infringement.

After dismissing the claims, Beastie Boys moved for attorneys’ fees.

In the latest order handed down on Thursday, March 9, Nathan said TufAmerica’s behaviour can be interpreted as “objectively unreasonable” because “it is a well-established principle of copyright law that a co-owner cannot unilaterally grant an exclusive licence”.

Nathan awarded the band $591,275 in attorneys’ fees and $11,553 in legal costs. Fellow defendant Universal was awarded $234,670 in attorneys’ fees.

Last year, Beastie Boys won nearly $700,000 in attorneys’ fees after the same US court found that drinks company Monster Energy “needlessly” prolonged litigation in a copyright dispute between the two parties.

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