He didn’t win anything, says Joe Bogdanovich

“My lawyers are dealing with it, he didn’t win anything. The matter is still before the courts, they didn’t win anything, all this is just trying to make him look good,” said the Downsound Records chief executive officer.

“The judgment was made, but we have appealed, and we will be sitting in front of a judge very soon, so that the court can hear our side of the story. It’s self-explanatory really, there is just no money in the game. We submitted all the receipts, we showed them the receipts that came in, just USD$100 came in…there is no money in the game. And if this is the result, who wants to do business in this sort of environment.”

The multimillion-dollar award was made in a breach of copyright suit filed against Bogdanovich and producer Cordel ‘Skatta’ Burrell by fellow music producer André ‘Rookie’ Tyrell, who claims that he was not compensated after “the whole or a substantial part” of his ‘Superstar Rhythm’ was used on the song, as well as for a major advertising campaign.

Skatta and Downsound Records have been ordered by a High Court judge to pay Tyrell $9.5 million for statutory damages under the Copyright Act; $2.5 million for breach of moral rights and US$15,000 (J$1,785,000)for general or compensatory damages.

The awards for general damages and breach of moral rights will attract interest at 14.99 per cent annually from June 2012, when Tyrell filed his legal motion to October this year when the ruling was made.

Tyrell charged, in court documents, that in 2011, Skatta and Downsound Records created a beat they named the ‘Street Hustle’ rhythm, which was “a reproduction or adaptation and or derivative work of the whole or a substantial part” of his ‘Super Star’ rhythm.

Tyrell later approached the United Kingdom-based Performing Rights Society for Music to register his interest in the song only to discover that Downsound “apparently registered the infringing song under different names.”