Legal

Could Friday end up in litigation

By | Published on Monday 4 April 2011

Rebecca Black

That didn’t take long, did it? According to Rolling Stone, Rebecca Black’s mother Georgina Marquez Kelly has had her lawyer Brian Schall send a letter to the Ark Music Factory – the studio behind the YouTube sensation that is ‘Friday’ – accusing the company of infringing her copyrights and unlawfully exploiting her daughter’s publicity rights.

Kelly, it seems, wants the master recordings of ‘Friday’ which, she says, she was promised when she paid four grand for her daughter to make a pop song with the Ark Music Factory late last year. She also accuses the music company of exploiting the track – which she and her daughter own – on YouTube, iTunes and Amazon, of making an unauthorised ringtone available, and for incorrectly claiming to be the exclusive representative of Black on its website.

Ark founder Patrice Wilson played down the looming legal dispute when approached by Rolling Stone, claiming he had recently spoken to Black’s mother and all was fine. He confirmed his company did not exclusively represent the YouTube star, adding that this claim had now been removed from the Ark website. As for the master recording etc, he added: “She will get the masters and the song, they can have it all”.

Though, to confuse matters, Ark’s own lawyer Barry Rothman did not concur with his client regards Kelly and Black having “it all”. He told Rolling Stone: “They say they own the composition. Nothing could be further from the truth. If they go forward and license it or attempt to copyright it in their name, that would be copyright infringement and we’d act accordingly under the circumstances”.

It’s possible, of course, that the distinction to be made here is between the track and the song, even though the Wilson seemed to be implying Kelly had bought both with her four grand cheque. But Rothman seems to be saying that while Kelly may own the master recording of her daughter’s surprise hit, the songwriting rights remain with Ark. Assuming that is the case, and assuming Kelly was not originally aware of that fact, there could yet be a suitably amusing legal squabble to come out of this.

Add to that suggestions in the Hollywood Reporter that Wilson has fallen out with his business partner at Ark, and that said partner has hired his own legal representation, and you can’t help thinking everyone involved here might have been better off had Black’s little slice of vanity shit-pop stayed as low key as all of Ark’s previous creations. That the world at large would have been better off with such an eventuality goes without saying.



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