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Speaker 1: Universal Music group also seems to always be involved in

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some sort of litigations. Says Here, a judge is thrown

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out Salt and Pepa's lawsuit against Universal Music. The suit

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sought to retake control of the hip hop duo's master recordings.

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Cheryl Salt James and Sandra Pepa Denton attempted to exercise

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their so called termination rights under section two oh three

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of the Copyright Act, under which artists can draw but

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can claw back they're masters decades after signing away the copyrights.

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By the way, for anyone who doesn't know, I know

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a lot of industry people listen to the show. But

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if you don't know, when we talk about the masters

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means the master recordings, the original recordings that were done

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of these. You know, if you're if you're a recording artist,

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you ideally you want to own your master recordings.

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Speaker 2: He who owns the master owns the song.

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Speaker 3: Yes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So this is what they were trying to do.

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They were trying to take take back control.

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Speaker 3: But again this was.

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Speaker 1: A thing where because I remember the original story about this,

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when the lawsuit was filed, it got complicated about who

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actually owned the masters because it wasn't as simple as

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they were trying to get their masters back from UMG.

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There was this also this other thing about somebody owned

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part of the masters or owned all the masters, like

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a former manager of theirs or something.

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Speaker 3: It was this whole convoluted thing.

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Speaker 4: Interesting though how this pans out though, because it said

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that with their original contract, that it was in the

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contract that the copyrights would revert back to them after

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thirty five years. Yes, but then when you go to

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the contract, UMG said, well, Salt and Pepper didn't actually.

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Speaker 3: Sign it, oh right, in.

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Speaker 2: Nineteen eighty six.

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Speaker 4: Right, they didn't actually sign the nineteen eighty six record

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deal with Imprint Next Plateau Records. So though apparently they

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thought they did and they thought they had this contract,

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UMG has somehow found this loophole and said, oh, well

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they didn't actually sign it, and the judge went up

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dismissed the whole thing. Yeah, and that's so wrong in

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my book, that is so wrong.

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Speaker 2: That is so wrong.

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Speaker 4: A lot of these artists too, especially back in the day,

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you know, before the Internet, it was really hard for artists.

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Speaker 2: To get any attention.

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Speaker 4: It's so much easier now, not that it's I shouldn't

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say easy, music is more accessible, artistry is more accessible

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to the world. Because of the Internet, people can get

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their voice out there, even on their own. You can

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self publish a book, you can produce and put your

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own music out. Back in the day, back in the eighties,

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you had to get found. You had to find something,

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somebody who would take notice of you, and it would

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It was beyond rare to be noticed that if somebody did.

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That level of excitement at that young age is like.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, we got a record contract. Whoo, you

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don't lose your mind.

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Speaker 4: And I honestly believe that they wholeheartedly believed and had a.

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Speaker 2: Contract at that time.

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Speaker 4: I don't know what this is or but I feel

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like there's some loophole here because that one sentence doesn't

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give me enough information. Yeah, that they got to take

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a walk away with all of their artistry, all of

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their work and say too bad, too sad, thirty five

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years wind have gone by, but we're still not going

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to give it back to you because we want to

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make as much money off of you as possible, and

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they didn't. Right now, the artist is completely left out

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in the cold. Your creation, your artistry, your heart insul

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and you don't get nothing, but the multi billion dollar company.

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Speaker 1: Does, so, it says James who assault. Cheryl James told

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Good Morning America in August, quote, when you're an artist

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in the beginning, you sign a contract saying that the

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copyrights will revert back to you after thirty five years.

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And we've done all the things legally to get our

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copyrights back, but they're just refusing. So we had to

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see them unquote. Denton and James further claimed UMG had

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removed some of their biggest hits, including push It, from

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streaming platforms, amid the legal fight.

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Speaker 4: They retaliated against them. Yeah, so they couldn't make money

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off of they're more popular. They're hugely popularslong push It.

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Yeah that see to add insult to injury.

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Speaker 1: Wow, Yeah, that's great.

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Speaker 2: Going to be a special kind of awful human for that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's clear retaliatory. UMG mentioned I'm sorry. UMG maintained

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that Salt and Pepa did not have the termination rights

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because they didn't actually sign their nineteen eighty six record

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deal with Imprint next Plateau Records.

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Speaker 2: Did a manager sign for them? You know what I mean?

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Speaker 4: Like this this is something here, Yeah, because if that

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was if that was the flat out case all this time,

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they would have brought that out a long time ago.

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Speaker 2: They found some kind of loophole.

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Speaker 4: Maybe the manager signed it and not specifically the girls,

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So they're using that as a loophole of some kind.

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Speaker 2: There's got to be more to that part. It has

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to be.

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Speaker 4: This has been going on for too long for that

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to suddenly come out now. I feel like there has

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to be a loophole they're using.

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Speaker 3: Maybe I'm wrong, Well what so, how how do they

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even This is what I don't get. If they if

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they never signed the contract, then then that means there

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is no contract, right, So what am I missing here?

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Speaker 4: So how come they don't own this stuff anyway because

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they never signed a deal to give it.

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Speaker 2: To somebody else?

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Speaker 3: Right?

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Speaker 2: True? The other side of the coin? Yeah, yeah, got

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a good point.

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Speaker 3: So how does that work?

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Speaker 4: But the judge just at hand, now we don't know

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if he dismissed it with prejudice or not. We just

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know that he dismissed the entire case.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it says Judge Denise Cody sided with UMG on

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Thursday and dismissed the claims entirely as a result of

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these findings. In a statement shared with Billboard, a UMG

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spokesperson said the company has gratified that the court dismissed

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this baseless lawsuit. Salt and Peppa have the right to

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appeal the dismissal order if they choose to do so.

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Speaker 2: Baseless lawsuit, baseless. It's their artistry. How dare you? Yeah?

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How dare you?

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Speaker 3: You know?

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Speaker 4: This is the big billion dollar company that's got every

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rich lawyer at their disposal, with all kinds of resources

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against a couple of artists who probably don't make a

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heck of a lot offer their music that's streaming, that

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insult to injury. All this time, they've been looking forward

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to having their music back thirty five years, oh, waiting

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for the day, waiting for the day, And the day

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finally comes and the billion dollar industry found a way

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to get them yet again. It's so wrong. It's so wrong.

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It's always the artist to get the crappy end of

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the stick because they can't afford to put up the

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fights that these companies can.

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Speaker 2: It's David and Goliath in a lot of these situations

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Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, one hundred