Ye loses copyright infringement trial over one-time use of instrumental track

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Ye, the rapper and fashion entrepreneur previously known as Kanye West, was found liable Tuesday in a copyright infringement trial over his one-time use of an instrumental track for an early version of Grammy Award-winning single “Hurricane” during a listening party.

The jury awarded about $450,000 to Artist Revenue Advocates, or ARA, a limited liability company that acquired the rights to the one-minute, one-second recording created in 2018 by a group of four musicians and producers in a downtown Los Angeles studio.

In the original complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court, the company sought damages for the final versions of “Hurricane” and “Moon” that appeared on Ye’s 2021 album “Donda.” However, U.S. District Judge Michelle Williams Court ruled in February, on summary judgment, that Artist Revenue Advocates couldn’t sue for infringement of its copyright in the composition referred to as “MSD PT2” because that copyright wasn’t transferred by the musicians to the company in writing.

That left the jury with only a damages claim for Ye infringing the copyright of the sound recording of “MSD PT2” when he performed “80 degrees” — the earlier version of “Hurricane” — to the track at a sold-out listening party at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta that was livestreamed by Apple.

Britton Monts, ARA’s general counsel, said after the verdict was read that the company will appeal the judge’s ruling that barred the largest part of their case.

“This is an important victory for working artists who typically lack the resources to go after a major star like Ye,” Monts said outside the courtroom. “The underdog got their day in court.”

The album version of “Hurricane” used a different musical background, and even if it may have resembled “MSD PT2,” without a valid copyright in the composition of the track, ARA couldn’t claim infringement.

Ye credited the four creators of “MSD PT2” among the 27 co-writers of “Hurricane,” and they received royalty payments until they, through ARA, filed the lawsuit. Khalil Abdul-Rahman, professionally known as DJ Khalil, at whose studio the track was recorded, was given a co-producer credit for “Hurricane.”

The damages Artist Revenue Advocates claimed for that use of the recording were no less than $564,000 based on the revenue it says Ye received from ticket sales, merchandise sales and the money Apple paid to livestream the show, as well as from apparel sales for the outfit he sported during the show that was part of his collaboration with Gap at the time.

Eduardo Martorell, an attorney for Ye and his various corporate entities, told the jury that the four musicians had given the rapper an implicit right to use their track as he was “test driving” it for use in one of his songs.

DJ Khalil had given the track, along with several others, to a producer in 2018 to shop around to see if any major recording artists were interested in using it, as is normal practice in the music industry, Martorell said in his opening statement.

By putting their music out the way they did, Martorell argued, the four musicians led Ye to believe he could use it the way he did by experimenting with it in the expectation that they would be compensated once it was commercially released.

While Ye’s camp and attorneys for DJ Khalil and the other musicians tried to negotiate a “split” for the use of their track, the two sides never reached an agreement. According to ARA’s attorney Irene Lee, Ye’s people stonewalled the musicians, and Ye’s attorney argued the musicians sought an unrealistic cut of the royalties.

Martorell declined to comment on the jury’s verdict.

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