Miami.- The entities J&N Records, LLC; J&N Publishing, LLC; 829Music Mundial, LLC and Mayimba Music, Inc. have initiated a legal process against Luis Alfredo Silverio, known as Luigui Bleand, executive director of Harley Boys Entertainment, accusing him of fraud related to copyright violations affecting the aforementioned companies.
The entity, which is promoted under the name of Road Runner Entertainment, has been operating for over ten years under a series of corporate identities, providing unauthorized sound recording licenses to third parties.
These recordings are then passed on to Digital Distributors, which in turn offer them to global streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple, Amazon, etc.) and digital stores.
The legal action presented also alleges an additional fraud regarding the underlying musical works, alleging that Bleand created presumably false accounts in the copyright societies (PRO, for its English acronym) with the purpose of registering works in an illegitimate manner and, in some cases, attributing authorship of compositions to others in order to later license them to third parties, generate income and evade payment to the true authors.
The document details a supposed constant abuse by Bleand over several years, who, upon being discovered, simply transferred his catalog from one distributor to another, starting with TuneCore, followed by The Orchard and later ADA Latin.
However, “ADA Latin” and Warner Latina (“Warner”) have reached an agreement that exonerates Warner from the accusation presented, resulting in the presentation of an amended complaint where Warner is not listed as an accused party.
After being disconnected from ADA, Bleand joined a digital distributor based in England, Ditto Ltd., as an example, continuing to publish unauthorized content that infringes on the rights of the plaintiffs.
And this could be just the “tip of the iceberg”, given that the plaintiffs have also discovered that Bleand granted licenses for a master tape of 829Music Mundial, with which he had no relation whatsoever, to a record label in Spain.
The frustration of the plaintiffs is evident, as they faced numerous barriers when trying to determine the identity of the infringer. Digital Distributors, for example, usually invoke the right to privacy of their clients and resist revealing information about them.
Additionally, after presenting the complaint, the plaintiffs received communication from Sound Royalties, a company described as “a leading financial firm in the music industry, that offers financing for projects without appropriating the rights to the works”.
The plaintiffs were unaware that Bleand had received a $ advance from Sound Royalties, which was supposedly recovered from Warner royalties. Sound Royalties has requested to intervene in the case mentioned, a request that was answered by the plaintiffs.
The complaint focuses not only on the master tapes, but also reveals that:
“In , the accused Bleand, through his company Renegade US, Inc. (“The Renegade”) granted licensing rights to J&N Publishing works to The Orchard Publishing (works by Marte, which are actually owned and controlled by J&N Publishing) among other compositions. At the request of J&N Publishing, The Orchard Publishing ceded all rights to the titles of Marte, including the works of J&N Publishing. However, metadata associating these works with Marte are still found in royalty management companies such as Harry Fox and MLC.”
Defense of their catalogs
The plaintiffs’ struggle to persuade digital distributors to remove Bleand’s infringing catalog has led them to seek legal solutions to protect their catalogs, which becomes an additional frustration considering that the plaintiffs possess all the copyright records and contracts with composers and artists relevant to each of the works involved.
The change in music distribution from physical formats to digital has left behind certain “protections” that were fundamental. In the past, to print a physical disc, the printing plant required the chain of titles of the works to be printed (photomechanical licenses, recording contracts, etc.) before proceeding with the printing.
The digital revolution has democratized and significantly reduced costs, but, in practice, has omitted much of this due diligence. In the case of some distributors that allow content to be uploaded through a “one-click” method and their respective music editors of “one-click”, where there is no human interaction, anyone could theoretically upload the entire catalog of Michael Jackson, add their own name as composer and editor, and the resulting metadata would be distributed in the music business ecosystem.
Hopefully, bringing to light and holding accountable some of these malicious actors will lead to greater protection for rights holders and greater diligence on the part of digital distributors and other administrators in the music business.
credits of the images of this post: n.com.do
