Ray Charles Foundation Sues Musician's Children Over Copyright
Ray Charles Foundation Sues Musician's Children Over Copyright
The Ray Charles Foundation is suing seven of the late singer's children for up to $3.5 million for seeking to terminate the transfer of copyrights to the foundation on fifty-one of Charles' songs, the Wrap reports.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, each of Charles' twelve children who were over the age of 18 in 2002 entered into a written agreement that they would receive irrevocable trusts of $500,000 in exchange for not seeking additional bequests from their father's estate. According to the complaint and media reports following Charles' death in 2004, he intended to leave the bulk of his estate to charitable works for the disabled and disadvantaged youth, Courthouse News Service reports.
The foundation, which is the sole beneficiary of Charles' estate and depends on proceeds from royalties to fund its projects, claims that seven of the singer's children, unhappy with their inheritance after receiving the $500,000 as agreed, served copyright termination or transfer notices on fifty-one of his songs, the first of which went into effect April 1. According to the lawsuit, they are trying to exploit a "termination of transfer" rule in copyright law that allows artists to reclaim the copyrights on their songs temporarily in order to negotiate better royalty rates.
"The self-serving attempts on the part of the defendants to deprive the foundation of its said intellectual property and contract rights not only is contrary to the express wishes of their father and in breach of the agreement they signed and promises that they made," the lawsuit states, "but contrary to the best interests of those innocent parties who would be benefited by the grants made by the foundation."
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