Sony Music Entertainment (SME) has reached a settlement with the makers of the 2022 biopic Whitney Houston: I want to dance with someone.
In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Monday (November 18), Sony’s lawyers said they were dismissing the lawsuit in full “with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be refiled.
SMEs and their labels, Mangfiled a copyright lawsuit in February, naming anthem movie and NYBO Productions as defendant, together with black label mediaand the company formed to produce the film, WH movie. The lawsuit alleges that the companies failed to pay licensing fees for 24 Whitney Houston tracks used in the film.
These tracks include I will Always Love You, so emotional, i am every woman, how do i knowand I’m your baby tonight.
Houston signed with Arista Records – at the time Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) and RCA Records – 1983. 220 million Record. Houston died in 2012 at the age of 48.
biopic i want to dance with someone Released in December 2022 and garnered some box office $60 million worldwide, according to Sony’s complaint against the film’s producers.
The complaint accuses the production company of “intentional and unauthorized use” of Houston’s song, despite signing a synchronization licensing deal with Sony days before the film’s release.
In August 2023, Sony sent a letter to Anthem notifying the company that it was in breach of its agreement with Sony, and Anthem responded that it would be able to pay the license fee once it received the tax credits, the complaint said.
Sony responded that if the new arrangement were put on paper, it would agree to wait until the tax credits were passed. However, Anthem said it could not sign such an agreement because the film’s investor, Black Label Media, controls the payout and Black Label refused to authorize payments to SME.
“To date, Anthem has not paid the fees or any portion of the fees required by the agreement,” said the February complaint, which can be read in full here.
“Due to Anthem’s failure to pay fees and resolve such matters, any use of SME’s recordings in the film by Anthem and/or Black Label is (and has been) unauthorized and infringes SME’s rights.”
The amount the filmmakers agreed to pay for the sync license was redacted from the public version of Sony’s complaint. However, the company has requested $150,000 Per Violation—The legal maximum limit under U.S. copyright law—Total $3.6 million.global music business
