Get up, stand up
In Estate litigation, it helps to know a little bit about other areas of the law, not to mention human nature. You just never know what you will see or hear on any given day.
Case in point: a controversy between the estate of Reggae icon Bob Marley, who died more than 25 years ago, and Verizon Wireless over the use of cellphone technology barely conceivable when Marley died.
According to this article, Universal Music owns the rights to some of Marley’s greatest hits, so Verizon secured a deal with Universal to use snippets of Marley songs as ringtones for its cellphones. Marley’s estate objected, saying Verizon needed its permission as well. Verizon, thinking this was really between Universal and the Marley family, temporarily removed the ringtones, but reversed that when a company owned by the Marley family claimed the removal was giving up the dispute.
So, a presumably sleepy estate of an anti-capitalist songster who died before personal computers were even popularized is jarred into action by the use of his songs by a cutting-edge corporation a quarter of a century later.
In fairness to Mr. Marley’s family, the image of a suit-wearing, stressed-out city dweller hobbling to work with one of Marley’s tunes blaring from a cellphone, adding to the stress of it all, just doesn’t fit with the Bob Marley mystique.
In fact, no doubt Mr. Marley could have suggested a little something to soothe everyone’s hurt feelings. In his absence, no such luck.
This one could get nasty: stay tuned.
Thanks for reading.
Sean Graham
