Universal Music Group (UMG) has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit Salt-N-Pepa brought against the label in May, in which it accused UMG of refusing to return control of their master recordings.
Some context:
In May Salt-N-Pepa (AKA Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton) sued UMG for refusing to grant them termination rights to reacquire their master recordings.
In doing so they allege UMG violated the Copyright Act, which gives artists the right to reclaim control of their music’s intellectual property 35 years after its original release.
In response, UMG claimed the duo’s termination notice was invalid, as per Music Ally.
An update:
UMG has now motioned to dismiss the lawsuit.
They claim Salt-N-Pepa don’t have termination rights because it was their producer, Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor, who signed their 1986 distribution deal with Next Plateau Records, not James and Denton.
Next Plateau Records is now under the UMG umbrella.
As per Billboard the motion reads: “There was never an intention to effectuate a copyright transfer from plaintiffs. The only transfer is made by producer as the copyright owner to Next Plateau. Because this is not a grant subject to termination by plaintiffs, plaintiff’s declaratory judgment claim as to the validity of their termination of purported grants concerning the sound recordings should be dismissed.”
In other words, because Salt-N-Pepa did not sign their original deal with Next Plateau Records, UMG argue the judge should throw out the entire suit.
Salt-N-Pepa’s response:
As per Billboard, a spokesperson said: “UMG’s response is just what we expected – an effort to avoid addressing the core issues facing Salt-N-Pepa and so many other artists in these circumstances. But we remain confident that the facts and the law are on our side.”
