Home / Arts and Entertainment / Judge Reverses Ruling in Bad Bunny Copyright Lawsuit
Judge Reverses Ruling in Bad Bunny Copyright Lawsuit
2 Sep
Summary
- Judge Birotte Jr. reversed a prior ruling allowing a copyright case to proceed.
- Steely and Clevie claimed over 1,800 reggaeton songs sampled their dembow rhythm.
- The judge ruled plaintiffs failed to identify a specific copyrighted work.
A significant copyright lawsuit against Bad Bunny and over 150 other artists has seen a major shift. U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. reversed a previous decision, preventing the case from proceeding to trial. The lawsuit, initiated in 2021 by Clevie Browne and the heirs of Wycliffe Johnson (Steely and Clevie), accused artists of sampling the dembow rhythm from their 1990s hit "Fish Market."
Attorneys for Bad Bunny had argued that the alleged copied musical pattern was based on elements from three separate songs. Judge Birotte Jr. agreed, stating in his Sept. 1 ruling that the plaintiffs failed to identify a specific copyrighted work. This ruling effectively ended a large portion of the case, though other claims regarding direct samples remain open.
