Yellowcard resume Juice WRLD “Lucid Dreams” copyright infringement suit
Yellowcard are reportedly resuming their lawsuit against late emo rapper Juice WRLD for alleged copyright infringement. The response date for the defendants has been extended.
The case was put on pause last week following the tragic death of Juice Wrld. Yellowcard claimed they were digesting the news.
Read More: Andrew McMahon reacts to Target allegedly ripping off lyrics for pillow
Yellowcard is seeking $15 million in damages in the suit. They claim the rapper’s 2018 hit “Lucid Dreams” was a knock off of their 2006 track “Holly Wood Died”.
Former Yellowcard members William Ryan Key, Sean Michael Wellman-Mackin, Peter Michael Mosely and Longineu Warren Parsons filed the complaint in late October in the U.S. District Court in California.
However, the lawsuit had been put on hold after the rapper, aka Jarad Anthony Higgins, died over the weekend. Shortly after leaving his private plane early Sunday morning, Dec. 8, the 21-year-old rapper succumbed to a seizure in Chicago’s Midway Airport.
Now, according to XXL, they obtained court documents filed Dec. 17 that allege Yellowcard is pursuing the suit. The date of an individual part has, however, been pushed back.
Read More: Volumes vocalist says he was fired from the band “for personal bullshit”
Yellowcard pushed back the response date for Juice WRLD’s co-defendants Taz Taylor, Nick Mira, and the two labels he is signed to—Grade A Productions and Interscope Records from Dec. 09 to Feb. 04, 2020.
The members of Yellowcard are being represented by lawyer Richard Busch, who told Digital Music News that the lawsuit was being put on pause last week.
As Digital Music News notes, now, it’s impossible for the rapper to be interviewed in the case. That may have determined if he knew of the Yellowcard song prior to writing and recording his track. However, he is not the only party named in the suit, so it is possible that it will continue.
Key and Mackin were with Yellowcard until their final show in 2017, but Mosely and Parsons departed previously. However, they were all with the band upon Lights And Sounds 2006 release, the album that houses “Holly Wood Died.”
In the original complaint filed, Yellowcard alleges Juice WRLD and his collaborators ripped “melodic elements” from their track without permission.
“Defendants copied the Original Work without license or consent, and have exploited the subsequent Infringing Work and Infringing Sound Recording to their collective benefit without regard to Plaintiffs’ rights and to Plaintiffs’ detriment,” the filed complaint reads.
“The Infringing Work and Infringing Sound Recording are not only substantially similar to the Original Work, but in some places virtually identical.”
As stated, the band are seeking damages in excess of $15 million and “running royalty and/or ownership share” moving forward. Alternatively, they’re seeking statutory damages “for each act of copyright infringement”. They’re also requested each of the defendants named be “permanently enjoined” from exploiting “Lucid Dreams” in the future.
See more: In memoriam: Musicians we lost in 2019
[envira-gallery id=”197439″]
