50 Cent Loses “In Da Club” Remix Legal Battle Against Rick Ross

 

50 Cent has finally hit a dead end in his 5-year-old lawsuit against Rick Ross, who he accused of sampling his song “In Da Club” without his permission.

Ross has used the song in his 2015 Renzel Remixes project, which 50, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, called a trademark infringement and so sued Ross for $2 million.

However, the court papers obtained by Billboard said Ross recorded the song following an agreement with his then-label, Shady Records/Aftermath Records. “[Curtis] Jackson owns no copyright interest in ‘In Da Club’,” said the court paper, and also noted that 50 Cent also gave Shady/Aftermath the “perpetual and exclusive rights during the term of [the Recording Agreement],” and a non-exclusive right to forever use 50’s name and likeness “for the purposes of trade, or for advertising purposes … in connection with the marketing and exploitation of Phonograph Records and Covered Videos.”

At first, a court has now found that 50 Cent signed away his rights to the song and his right of publicity to his labels in the recording agreement, that he couldn’t sue Ross for sampling the song. Complex adds now that the U.S. Appeals Court has upheld that decision.

The outlet said:

The appeals court decided that even though Ross didn’t ask for approval to use the song on his mixtape, and failed to include 50 Cent’s name as a featured artist, 50’s recording agreement still meant that he had “surrendered his rights to the use of his name, performance and likeness associated with the master recording of ‘In Da Club’ in connection with the advertising and marketing of ‘Phonograph Records.’”

In agreeing with the lower court’s decision, the appeals court ruled that Ross was “presumably liable for copyright infringement to Shady/Aftermath, but not” 50 Cent. The court said Fif may have the right to either urge Shady/Aftermath to sue Roberts for copyright infringement—and to seek damages from which 50 could be warranted a royalty—or seek damages from Shady/Aftermath for neglecting to protect 50’s right to royalties by suing Roberts. The court ultimately decided, though, that Fif didn’t have the right to personally sue Ross.