{"id":791527,"date":"2018-12-21T18:28:06","date_gmt":"2018-12-22T01:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=772233"},"modified":"2018-12-21T18:28:06","modified_gmt":"2018-12-22T01:28:06","slug":"late-n-w-a-manager-jerry-hellers-straight-outta-compton-lawsuit-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/late-n-w-a-manager-jerry-hellers-straight-outta-compton-lawsuit-dismissed\/","title":{"rendered":"Late N.W.A Manager Jerry Heller\u2019s \u2018Straight Outta Compton\u2019 Lawsuit Dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Three years after N.W.A manager Jerry Heller sued the producers<\/a> of the Straight Outta Compton<\/a>\u00a0biopic for $110 million \u2013 and over two years after Heller died at the age of 75<\/a> \u2013 a judge has dismissed the copyright infringement suit.<\/p>\n

Heller initially sued N.W.A members and biopic producers Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, as well as Universal and the Eazy-E estate, in October 2015 alleging that Straight Out Compton<\/em> used his name and likeness without permission and that he, as portrayed by Paul Giamatti in the film, was painted as a \u201cbad guy\u201d and \u201ca sleazy manager who took advantage\u201d of the gangsta rap group.<\/em><\/p>\n

Heller also claimed that some elements of the plot \u2013 including a scene where Eazy-E is forced by Suge Knight to turn over his Death Row rights \u2013 were taken from his own\u00a0Ruthless: A Memoir<\/em>\u00a0without permission.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in the business for six decades. I\u2019ve probably represented almost every major artist in the world, either directly or peripherally, at one time or another. I have a certain reputation, and that reputation certainly doesn\u2019t entail the things that they said about me. It was very hurtful,\u201d Heller told Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a> of the lawsuit. \u201cI thought \u2018No Vaseline<\/a>\u2018 was hurtful. But actually, this was more hurtful. Look, I am what I am, but I\u2019m not a thief. And I\u2019m not scandalous. I did more for\u00a0N.W.A<\/a>\u00a0\u2026 I mean, it was just incredible, the success that we had. So for them to call me a thief is just terrible. And I\u2019m just not going to allow that.<\/p>\n

Following Heller\u2019s death in September 2016 after suffering a medical emergency that resulted in a car accident, his estate continued on with the lawsuit. However, a California district judge ruled Friday that Heller\u2019s estate failed to support the late manager\u2019s claims, the Hollywood Reporter<\/em> writes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff fails to allege sufficient\u00a0facts to establish that Heller is a co-author of the Screenplay and the allegations establish that Universal was licensed to use the Screenplay,\u201d Judge Michael Fitzgerald wrote in his decision.\u00a0\u201cAs the parties previously\u00a0agreed, theMotion is granted without leave to amend.\u00a0The action is, at last, DISMISSED.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of Heller\u2019s $110 million lawsuit, Straight Outta Compton<\/em> was the highest-grossing music biopic of all time; that record has since been surpassed by the Queen film Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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

Three years after N.W.A manager Jerry Heller sued the producers of the Straight Outta Compton\u00a0biopic for $110 million \u2013 and over two years after Heller died at the age of 75 \u2013 a judge has dismissed the copyright infringement suit. Heller initially sued N.W.A members and biopic producers Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, as well […]<\/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":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-791527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 20:30:30","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":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}