Lawsuits Paint Interesting Pictures!

 

Centrifuges  (The process of separating liquids from solids)

       Here are reflections on lawsuits in various areas. Kevin Costner, a great actor without question, has a business partner, Patrick Smith. The two have a company called Ocean Therapy Solutions, and there is a lawsuit filed by Stephen Baldwin, another great actor, and his friend, Spyridon Contogouris. Baldwin and Contogouris sold their (OTS) shares, of Costner’s company, for just under $2 million dollars cash Centrifuges. The lawsuit claims that Baldwin and Contogouris were defrauded of prior and pertinent information of a lucrative deal, which took place, between Costner’s OTS and British Petroleum (BP).

Baldwin alleges that Costner keep information about the OTS/BP deal a secret, from Baldwin and Contogouris, causing them to miss the millions, although they had already cashed in on their meager stock holdings, in comparison to the $51million-plus OTS/BP deals value Costner & Baldwin.

Here is a case of friends, actors, trust and business gone array; in the end, Costner wins the lawsuit. Baldwin stated that financially he contributed to OTS only on the merit of his celebrity status to OTS, simply because, he was never asked to do anything else Lawsuit over. Contogouris and Baldwin received $1.2 million and $500,000 in the sale of their stock and Costner $17 million after investing $20 million Lawsuit over. Rushing the business matter cost Baldwin a much bigger financial deal, but integrity won the lawsuit for Costner.

Costner wins suit

Digital Download Money Management

        Eminem’s production team sparked a major lawsuit against the Aftermath Record Company Digital royalties. The claim stated that payment from record companies was not paying correct royalty amounts to artist. The contracts language stated transactions as “sales”, paying only 10-20 %, versus“licensing”, which pays 50% to the artist. It appears that the record companies made TV ads, but deceived the artist by stating amounts that were larger than the amounts actually paid out. That was another way of stealing monies from the artist Digital royalties.     

Eminem Production Team

       The 2005-2009 financial report of Aftermath and FBT Record Companies reveal some of the misdirected payment practices Financial Report. The lawsuit was settled out of court, with all parties in agreement of the digital royalty payments. As a result, millions of dollars are being argued over in court for other artist, in reflection of the residuals from the music’ digital downloads lawsuit Results of FBT lawsuit.

Eminem Production Team

Listen and Learn: BMI and ASCAP Sue Restaurants

Infringement

When restaurants play the music of major licensed commercial artist, BMI and ASCAP can take, and have taken legal action against them, by way of copyright infringement. The fee for a valid license, that allows licensed music to be publicly played, only cost $650. The fine for making an offense for playing licensed music, without paying for it, is between $750 and $30,000 per song Infringement. Such infringements were in violation from restaurants in Ohio, via listening devices such as iPods, radios and jukebox’s, which still exist in some places Infringement.

       Clearly it is to the advantage of any establishment to pay for the license, if they want the music played in their restaurant. Between BMI and ASCAP, they bring citations to an estimation of approximately 75 to 300 establishments each year. Restaurants are given several warnings before an official copyright infringement citation or lawsuit is filed Infringement. This is only fair to artists who expect BMI and ASCAP to qualify their services by suing to enforce payment collections; this is what Performing rights organizations are all about, and why they were formed in the first place.

Launching out,

Isiah Baldwin