Universal Music Group discredits Limp Bizkit’s $200 million lawsuit against them for alleged lack of royalty payments.
Lawyers for the multinational label responded to the band’s complaint against the music publisher, stating that the accusations are based on “fiction.”
As previously reported, Fred Durst and Limp Bizkit filed a $200 million lawsuit against Universal Music, claiming the band “never received royalties” until recently.
In the lawsuit, filed Oct. 8, Durst’s attorneys allege that Limp Bizkit and “possibly hundreds of other artists” have had their royalties “unfairly withheld for years” due to a “fraudulent” system created by Universal Music. Considering Limp Bizkit’s enormous popularity during those years and the considerable amount of royalties he subsequently received.
Now, Universal’s lawyers say Durst’s claims are “based on a fallacy” and that the documents included in his own lawsuit “destroy” his case.
“Plaintiffs’ entire narrative that UMG attempted to hide royalties is a fiction,” wrote Rollin A. Ransom, an attorney representing UMG. [vía Rolling Stone]. “The lawsuit fails as a matter of law and should be dismissed without prejudice.”
According to Billboardthe filing cites emails in which a UMG executive appears to have attempted to secure royalties, but was rebuffed by the band’s own management.
The filing continued: “More than a year prior to the claimants’ ‘discovery’ of supposedly ‘hidden’ royalties, UMG affirmatively and unilaterally contacted Limp Bizkit’s representative in order to begin making royalty payments to the band, and in Instead he informed her that all but one of Limp Bizkit’s members (including plaintiff Durst) had assigned their royalty shares to others and were therefore not entitled to any royalty payments from UMG.”
For his part, Fred Durst’s lawyer responded this way:
“When someone is caught red-handed, their first reaction is usually to hire a very expensive outside law firm who, naturally, first try anything to dismiss the lawsuit when they find themselves in trouble with the facts. In this case, we believe that UMG is using a typical, conventional and hackneyed strategy of looking for any escape route while desperately clinging to technicalities.”
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