Legal Controversies in the Entertainment Industry

The first legal controversy I’m going to discuss is one about Prince.  Apparently Prince hired the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Taylor to handle all of his financial responsibilities for him, but then he turned around and didn’t even pay them for the services that they had provided to him.  He owes his lawyers over $700,000, but failure to pay that debt resulted in the firm filing a lawsuit against him in order to obtain that money from him.  In my personal opinion, Prince obviously has more than enough money to pay the law firm, so I believe he should just pay it.  They did a service for him and made his life easier, so he should respond in-kind and at least pay them what they are owed for their services.

The next legal controversy is regarding the group P.O.D.  The record label that P.O.D. is signed to, INO Records, had agreed to pay the group an advance in the amount of $400,000 prior to their next album.  INO failed to pay the group their advance because they felt as if P.O.D. hadn’t met their obligations to the label.  Since this was a direct breach of contract, P.O.D. is suing INO for at least the $400,000, and they will go from there.  I believe that INO should pay what they owe P.O.D.   When there is a contract/agreement involved in any matter, both parties should hold up to their end of the deal.  The article didn’t mention the details of the obligations that the group failed to live up to, so I’m a little on the fence about the issue, but at the same time, their contract did include an advance and it wasn’t paid.  I’m a firm believer of doing things by the book and in this case, INO needs to pay up.

The last controversy that I am going to discuss involves Nicki Minaj and her show, My Time Now.  When filming, they asked one of the street drummers that appeared in their shots if they could air the footage that they had taken of him and he refused.  MTV decided to air the footage despite the street drummer’s lack of consent and now he is suing both MTV and Viacom for the damages to his reputation and appearance.  Besides being a street drummer, he also teaches kids how to drum and his reputation is one for teaching children the good kind of music and not what is portrayed on T.V.  Nicki Minaj doesn’t represent what he is trying to teach his students, therefore, he didn’t want to be apart of the show.  When it was all said and done, he simply wanted to be compensated for the footage they took of him because they damaged his reputation and his business simultaneously.  If I were the street drummer, I would have done the exact same thing.  My morals and values come before any fame or spotlight and if I was trying to do something positive that involved young, impressionable children, then I wouldn’t want to tarnish their view of me either.