The Jesus and Mary Chain filed a lawsuit against Warner Music Group for committing copyright infringement. They sought nearly $2.5million (£1,771,825) in damages. The lawsuit has been filed in a California Federal Court. It was reportedly brought in the court of law by bandleaders Jim and William Reid. The brothers and their lawyer seem to claim that Warner was refusing to relinquish so-called ownership of the band’s early catalog which further includes the seminal 1985 debut album ‘Psychocandy’.

According to the Reids’ attorney, they actively sent a notice of termination to Warner Music Group in the month of January in 2019 for several matters including ‘Psychocandy’, 1987 album ‘Darklands’, 1988 compilation ‘Barbed Wire Kisses’, 1989’s ‘Automatic’ and 1992’s ‘Honey’s Dead’, various singles and EPs.

“WMG is the owner of the copyrights throughout the world in each of the sound recordings comprising the Noticed Works, and the Notice is not effective to terminate WMG’s U.S. rights,” said a lawyer for Warner’s Rhino label in December last year. The lawyer further went on to claim that the brothers, along with a former bandmate named Douglas Hart, agreed to the fact that WMG predecessor WEA was the maker of the aforementioned recordings, and also the first owner of the copyright for those works. They signed the work with the label in 1985. “As a result, you never owned any copyrights in the recordings which you could terminate,” the lawyer reportedly told the Reids. Evan S. Cohen is representing the band in the court. She asserted that WMG was undoubtedly infringing the band’s copyright protection under United States law.

“Our copyright law provides recording artists and songwriters with a valuable, once-in-a-lifetime chance to terminate old deals and regain their creative works after 35 years. This ‘second chance’ has always been a part of our copyright law. In this case against WMG, the label has refused to acknowledge the validity of any of the Notices of Termination served by The Jesus and Mary Chain and has completely disregarded the band’s ownership rights. Despite the law returning the US rights to the band, WMG is continuing to exploit those recordings and thereby willfully infringing upon our clients’ copyrights. This behavior must stop. The legal issues in this suit are of paramount importance to the music industry,” Cohen commented.

The Jesus and Mary Chain released their world-famous album ‘Damage and Joy’ back in the year 2017. It must be very interesting to have a look at how this case takes a turn and what will be the nature of the outcome.

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