Along with ABKCO and Concord, the music giant accuses TuneCore and its parent Believe of willfully infringing their copyrights to grow its business in a $500 million complaint.
An appeals court says that allowing Sheeran's accusers to proceed with their infringement lawsuit over “Thinking Out Loud” could "stifle creativity" for future songwriters.
The case is the latest to accuse a major brand of using copyrighted music in videos on Instagram and other platforms without the required synch licenses.
The lawsuit says a classic 1980s hip-hop track — a song sampled in Future's chart-topper earlier this year — infringed one of White's best-known hits.
The singer and her co-defendants argue that the holiday mega-hit shares only "fragmentary and commonplace building blocks of expression" with an earlier song.
The case is the latest in a long string of lawsuits that accuse the rapper of sampling or interpolating without proper licenses.
The group, which famously doesn't allow its music to be used in ads, says the owner of the restaurant chain used the song anyway.
Joshua Fraustro and Miguel Aguilar allege the rapper used their song "Greasy Frybread" in the hit track, which reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.
An oft-sampled 1973 song at the heart of hip hop history – and music law history – is now the basis of a new copyright case against UMG over Blige’s 1992 “Real Love.”
Making good on public threats to sue, the singer's estate claims West "arrogantly and unilaterally" used her music after he was refused a license.
