LOS ANGELES (AP) — The new incarnation of Death Row Records does not have the rights to sell Dr. Dre's iconic rap album "The Chronic" digitally, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge
Christina Snyder ruling states that the rapper and producer has received far
less money than he is due from online sales of the 1992 album, which also
helped launch the career of Snoop Dogg.
The ruling does not call for a halt
of digital sales of Dre's music, but entitles him to receive 100 percent of the
proceeds of online sales, his attorney, Howard King, told The Associated Press.
The rapper, whose real name is Andre
Young, sued WIDEawke Death Row Records last year, claiming it was improperly
selling "The Chronic" digitally and using some of his music on
compilation albums without his permission.
Snyder's ruling states the label,
which bought the original Death Row Records' holdings out of bankruptcy, does
not have the right to put Dr. Dre's music on compilation or any other albums.
"For years, Death Row Records
forgot about Dre when they continued to distribute his music digitally and
combined his hits with weaker Death Row tracks in an attempt to elevate the
stature of their other artists," King wrote in a statement. "We are
gratified that the federal court has unambiguously declared that Death Row has
no right to engage in such tactics, and must hold all proceeds from these
illicit distributions in trust for our client."
Phone and email messages for
WIDEawake's attorney, Michael Holtz, was not immediately returned Tuesday
evening.
The rapper has a long history of
battling Death Row Records, a label he confounded but later left.
The most recent case he filed
centered on his 1996 exit agreement with the label, which called for him to
receive 18 percent royalties on his music created while at Death Row and gave
him substantial authority over how the songs were used.
The agreement states that WIDEawake
can only sell Dre's music in the format it appeared in before the deal. Another
of Dre's attorneys, Stephen Rothschild, told Snyder during arguments in court
on Monday that meant it could only appear in four formats: CD, cassette, vinyl
and 8-Track.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
(AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)
