Rick Ross Copyright Lawsuit Against LMFAO Hits Legal Snag

While Rick Ross lost a copyright lawsuit against LMFAO as it pertains to merchandise back in September 2015, a new development in the over-arching case against the party-pop duo suggests that Ross has even less grounds to expect a victory than before. On New Year's Eve 2013, Ross had sued LMFAO, alleging that their song "Party Rock Anthem," which contains the lyric "Everyday I'm shufflin,'" infringed on his song "Hustlin,'" which used the lyric "Everyday I'm hustlin.'" But now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the copyright registrations may derail Ross's whole case.

"During the course of proceedings," THR writes, "it was discovered that there were actually three copyright registrations on Ross' 'Hustlin.' The first application came on Feb. 28, 2006, from an entertainment attorney for the production team seeking registration for an unpublished musical work. The second came on June 28, 2006, from a Warner Bros. entity seeking registration for a published musical work. And the third came on Feb. 28, 2007, from a Sony entity."

Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante said that her office should have refused to issue each of the registrations, saying that as of Feb. 28, 2006, copies of "Hustlin'" were already being distributed to radio and club DJs and therefore the word wasn't truly unpublished. The second and third applications would therefore be defective due to the earlier registration and incorrect dates used on the applications.

With this new information coming to light, the defendants in the case are arguing that the lawsuit should be dismissed, with Barry Rothberg writing, "It is now too late for them to even attempt to create valid copyright registrations for purposes of maintaining this action even assuming that the material misrepresentations could be resolved by something other than a new basic registration for Hustlin' and cancellation of the three invalid registrations."

Read the full story over at The Hollywood Reporter with the full brief from the defendants likewise available.

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