Bad Bunny Wins Key Ruling in Massive Reggaeton Lawsuit
In a rare move reversing his own decision, a judge says he discovered a major flaw in a lawsuit that accuses hundreds of reggaeton songs of infringement.
A federal judge has ruled in favor of reggaeton artist Bad Bunny, dismissing a significant portion of a massive copyright lawsuit that targeted hundreds of artists over the origins of the reggaeton genre. Judge André Birotte Jr. overturned his previous decision in favor of the plaintiffs, Steely & Clevie, a reggae duo claiming ownership of the dembow rhythm.
This rhythm is ubiquitous in reggaeton music and is alleged to have been used without permission in nearly 2,000 songs by over 150 artists, including Bad Bunny, Karol G, Daddy Yankee, Pitbull, Drake, Luis Fonsi, and Justin Bieber.
The lawsuit, filed in 2021, argued that Steely & Clevie's 1989 song "Fish Market" was the ultimate source of the dembow rhythm. The judge initially ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, sending the case to trial. However, after considering Bad Bunny's lawyers' arguments, the judge reconsidered his earlier ruling. He found that the plaintiffs had not clearly identified a single copyrighted work containing the alleged protectable selection and arrangement of the dembow rhythm.
According to Judge Birotte, U.S. copyright law does not provide protection for an "abstract amalgamation of elements extracted from multiple independently existing works." Instead, the elements must exist in a single song.
This ruling is a significant victory for Bad Bunny and the other defendants, bringing an end to a large portion of the lawsuit. However, future litigation may still occur over songs that allegedly directly sampled Steely & Clevie's sound recordings. Despite the outcome, an attorney for Steely & Clevie did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bad Bunny's attorney, Kenneth D. Freundlich, expressed satisfaction with the judge's decision, emphasizing that copyright law protects what an artist actually creates, not a collage assembled in litigation.
Written by urgent.news from Billboard's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
