Bob Marley Estate Settled

(The Hollywood Reporter); Bob Marley's estate has settled a lawsuit that challenged Universal Music Group's hold over key recordings by the reggae legend and also claimed underpayment of royalties from digital downloads. On Thursday, a federal judge in New York overseeing the case accepted a stipulation by the parties to dismiss the dispute without prejudice. our editor recommends Bob Marley's Family Sues to Stop Half-Brother From Using Singer's Name and Likeness Ziggy Marley, Jennifer Hudson, Lenny Kravitz to Lead Bob Marley Week on 'Fallon' Marley's estate brought the lawsuit in July 2008, alleging that UMG had underpaid millions of dollars of royalties since 2001. In September 2011, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote handed UMG a big victory by concluding that the recordings were "works made for hire," thus establishing the label as the author of the works for purposes of copyright law. One signed document gave Marley's estate 60% of receipts from music sold or licensed through "direct transmission to the consumer over wire or through the air" whereas another signed document applied traditional royalty calculations for "records released in formats newly developed as a result of advancing technology." Among the people probably relieved by the outcome is U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest, a former top antitrust and IP attorney who was recently put on the bench and assigned this case in a random reassignment of the docket in November. Among Forrest's pre-judge work as a partner at Cravath, Swaine, & Moore was representing Time Warner in pursuit of digital rights to music and helping lead the early charge for UMG and other labels against LimeWire.