By Carlos Martin Carle
Plaintiffs J&N Records LLC, J&N Publishing, LLC, 829Music Mundial LLC and Mayimba Music, Inc. allege Luis Alfredo Silverio a/k/a Luigui Bleand CEO of Harley Boys Entertainment, LLC d/b/a Road Runner Entertainment has, for over a decade (under a myriad of different corporate entities), licensed unauthorized recordings to third parties. These recordings are delivered to Digital Distributors who in turn provide them to the world’s streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple, Amazon, etc.) and digital stores. Furthermore, the complaint alleges additional fraud on the composition side – including the creation by Bleand of fraudulent accounts at PROs to fraudulently register compositions, blatantly registering others’ compositions in his (Bleand’s) own name as composer, licensing to third parties, and collecting revenue – all without ever accounting to and paying the bona fide writers.
The complaint recounts an alleged multi-year game of whack-a-mole where defendant Bleand, upon having his scheme uncovered, would simply move his infringing catalog from one digital distributor to another. First TuneCore, then The Orchard, and more recently ADA Latin (at the time of this writing, “ADA Latin”, together with Warner Latina (“Warner”) have settled, releasing Warner from the referenced complaint. An amended complaint was filed where Warner is not named as Defendant). Upon termination at ADA, Bleand has now moved over to a digital distributor based in England, Ditto Ltd., (among others), and has proceeded to release unauthorized content in violation of Plaintiffs’ rights. This, however, may be the “tip of the iceberg” as Plaintiffs are also aware of Bleand licensing an 829 master (a master to which Bleand had no rights whatsoever) to a record label based in Spain.
Plaintiffs’ frustration is palpable, as simply discerning the identity of the infringing party was met by a myriad of roadblocks. Digital Distributors, for example, will often cite their client’s right to privacy and refuse to divulge information.
After filing of the complaint, plaintiffs were contacted by Sound Royalties, (a company that defines itself as “a leading music industry finance firm, providing funding for projects without taking ownership of royalty copyrights….”). Unbeknownst to Plaintiffs, Bleand had received an advance payment of $750,000 from Sound Royalties, which sum was to be recouped from Warner royalties. Sound Royalties has made a Motion To Intervene in the above-cited action, which Plaintiffs have opposed.
Not limited to the master recordings, the complaint goes on to state:
“In 2021, Defendant Bleand, through his company the Renegade US Inc. (“The Renegade”) licensed the J&N Publishing Works (the Marte titles that are actually owned and controlled by J&N Publishing), and many other works to The Orchard Publishing. At J & N Publishing’s request, The Orchard Publishing relinquished all rights to the Marte titles, including the J&N Publishing Works. Metadata attributing these works to Marte, however, still persists at royalty administration companies such as Harry Fox and the MLC.”
Link To Complaint Here: 2024-07-03 DKT-38 Amended Complaint w Exhibits A-J(71170220.1).pdf
Editorial Takeaway:
The hurdles met in persuading digital distributors to remove Bleand’s infringing catalog have forced Plaintiffs to seek legal recourse to defend their rights – something that seems particularly frustrating, given Plaintiffs’ possession of copyright registrations and contracts with songwriters and artists for all works in question.
The evolution of physical to digital distribution has left some important “safeguards” by the wayside. In the old days, when one went to press a physical record, the pressing plant would require legal chain of title (mechanical licenses, recording contracts, etc.). The digital revolution, while democratizing and removing significant costs has, in effect, jettisoned much of this due diligence. With some one-click distributors (and their respective one-click music publishers) there is zero human contact. A person sitting behind a computer anywhere in the world could theoretically upload the entire Michael Jackson catalog and add their name as composer and publisher. The resultant metadata would then go into to the music business ecosystem.
Hopefully, exposure and accountability of some of these bad actors will lead to greater protections for rights holders – buttressed by additional due diligence of digital distributors, publishers and third-party administrators.
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