{"id":491886,"date":"2019-11-05T12:01:12","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T19:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=908359"},"modified":"2019-11-05T12:01:12","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T19:01:12","slug":"spinal-tap-creators-universal-music-group-settle-soundtrack-copyright-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/spinal-tap-creators-universal-music-group-settle-soundtrack-copyright-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Spinal Tap\u2019 Creators, Universal Music Group Settle Soundtrack Copyright Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The creators of This Is Spinal Tap<\/a><\/i> have settled a copyright dispute with Universal Music Group<\/a> over the soundtrack recordings for the 1984 metal mockumentary, Variety<\/i><\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

According to the settlement, Universal Music Group will continue to distribute Spinal Tap\u2019s music, although \u201ceventually the rights will be given to the creators. The parties look forward to making these beloved recordings available to existing and new Spinal Tap fans for years to come.\u201d No details were given regarding when Spinal Tap would gain control over their catalog.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Harry Shearer \u2014 who played bassist Derek Smalls in the original film and launched the lawsuit<\/a> in 2016 \u2014 said, \u201cI must admit, from the moment we first began mediation with them to now, I\u2019ve been impressed by UMG\u2019s respect for creatives and their distinctive desire to seek a prompt and equitable solution to the issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October 2016, Shearer\u2019s Century of Progress Productions sued UMG, StudioCanal and their parent company, Vivendi, over unpaid royalties. The lawsuit alleged that Vivendi had said he\u2019d earned just $81 in merchandising and $98 for the Spinal Tap<\/em> soundtrack between 1989 and 2006. Shearer also launched an initiative, Fairness Rocks<\/a>, along with the lawsuit, and in February 2017, his Spinal Tap<\/i> co-creators \u2014 actors Christopher Guest and Michael McKean, and director Rob Reiner \u2014 joined the suit<\/a>, seeking damages of $400 million.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Over the next year, the suit hit a few snags as Vivendi tried to get it dismissed. At one point, a judge denied<\/a> Vivendi\u2019s overall request, but did bump Shearer, McKean and Reiner from the suit because they\u2019d joined it via their \u201cloan out companies\u201d (the three later amended the suit and joined Guest under their own names). Eventually, in November 2018, lawyers for Vivendi and the Spinal Tap crew agreed to pause the suit and start working with a mediator.<\/p>\n

While the deal announced today settles Spinal Tap\u2019s dispute with UMG, Billboard<\/i><\/a> notes that the band\u2019s complaint against StudioCanal and executive Ron Halpern has not been resolved. That complaint involves breach of contract, fraud and anti-competitive businesses practices related to the management of film rights.<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The creators of This Is Spinal Tap have settled a copyright dispute with Universal Music Group over the soundtrack recordings for the 1984 metal mockumentary, Variety reports. According to the settlement, Universal Music Group will continue to distribute Spinal Tap\u2019s music, although \u201ceventually the rights will be given to the creators. The parties look forward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-music-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-22 06:34:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}