Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Feb 12, 2014 17:08:00 GMT -6
An update on the lawsuit brought against WWE by James D. Papa, the Texas songwriter and musician who is suing the company, Michael "Hayes" Seitz and others for allegedly using "Badstreet, USA" and other 1990s WCW Slamjam-era theme songs without permission or compensation as well as allegedly receiving royalties for the aforementioned songs.
Papa has also claimed that WWE cost him money after THQ contacted him about licensing "Badstreet USA" for a Legends of Wrestlemania videogame, only to drop interest and instead use a "clone" version of the song created by WWE's Jim Johnston.
As noted in September 2013, Papa filed a motion to appeal decisions made against him in the lawsuit after having his then-attorneys replaced.
In that motion, Papa claimed that he had very little communication with his former attorneys, even when legal rulings were made against his case, receiving "little of substance" from them. At the time, Papa noted that he was not informed that several of the defendants, including Seitz, had been dismissed from the lawsuit or that WWE had tried to get the case remanded from the State of Texas to another jurisdiction.
A number of the defendants had been dismissed as the court rules that Papa could not prove the court had any jurisdiction over them. The court had also dismissed Papa's copyright infringement claim against all of the defendants.
Since that time, Papa has had his lawyers removed from the case and filed an amended complaint against Michael Seitz, Stephanie Music Publishing Inc and World Wrestling Entertainment.
Papa has also filed suits against VE Newco LLC, the parent company of Vivendi Entertainment (which handles distribution of WWE DVD and Blu-Rays), Yukes (which designs the WWE video-games and has for years), and Take-Two Interactive, which acquired the license for the WWE video-games last year when THQ filed for bankruptcy.
In their response to the amended complaint, WWE denied any wrongdoing and claimed that since Papa had "consented to use" of his music in broadcasts of WCW and World Class Championship Wrestling material, that WWE would have the rights to use the material since they had acquired the copyrights to that material "lawfully". They also claimed the usage of the music in their World Class documentary would fall under "fair use" and claimed that Papa did not hold the copyright for the clone version that Jim Johnston created, so any claim against the song used in the videogame should be thrown out.
WWE requested a jury trial in their response.
A trial date of 3/23/15 has been set by the court, unless of course, there is some sort of settlement - which is always a possibility.
Papa has also claimed that WWE cost him money after THQ contacted him about licensing "Badstreet USA" for a Legends of Wrestlemania videogame, only to drop interest and instead use a "clone" version of the song created by WWE's Jim Johnston.
As noted in September 2013, Papa filed a motion to appeal decisions made against him in the lawsuit after having his then-attorneys replaced.
In that motion, Papa claimed that he had very little communication with his former attorneys, even when legal rulings were made against his case, receiving "little of substance" from them. At the time, Papa noted that he was not informed that several of the defendants, including Seitz, had been dismissed from the lawsuit or that WWE had tried to get the case remanded from the State of Texas to another jurisdiction.
A number of the defendants had been dismissed as the court rules that Papa could not prove the court had any jurisdiction over them. The court had also dismissed Papa's copyright infringement claim against all of the defendants.
Since that time, Papa has had his lawyers removed from the case and filed an amended complaint against Michael Seitz, Stephanie Music Publishing Inc and World Wrestling Entertainment.
Papa has also filed suits against VE Newco LLC, the parent company of Vivendi Entertainment (which handles distribution of WWE DVD and Blu-Rays), Yukes (which designs the WWE video-games and has for years), and Take-Two Interactive, which acquired the license for the WWE video-games last year when THQ filed for bankruptcy.
In their response to the amended complaint, WWE denied any wrongdoing and claimed that since Papa had "consented to use" of his music in broadcasts of WCW and World Class Championship Wrestling material, that WWE would have the rights to use the material since they had acquired the copyrights to that material "lawfully". They also claimed the usage of the music in their World Class documentary would fall under "fair use" and claimed that Papa did not hold the copyright for the clone version that Jim Johnston created, so any claim against the song used in the videogame should be thrown out.
WWE requested a jury trial in their response.
A trial date of 3/23/15 has been set by the court, unless of course, there is some sort of settlement - which is always a possibility.