Jimi Hendrix estate sues heirs of Jimi Hendrix Experience’s rhythm section

nme.com:

Jimi Hendrix has filed a lawsuit claiming that the estates representing his late Jimi Hendrix Experience bandmates, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, do not have the right to sue them for copyright claims.Dorothy Weber, the lawyer representing Experience Hendrix, LLC and Sony Music Entertainment, filed the suit on Tuesday (January 18) in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York.According to Rolling Stone, it comes after a letter Sony Music received in December from British lawyer, Lawrence Abramson, in which he claimed the label owed Redding and Mitchell’s estates performance royalties for roughly 3billion streams of the Experience’s songs.Abramson didn’t specify an amount they were looking for but did say that “such streaming figures and sales is estimated to be in the millions of pounds”.

He added: “Ignoring this letter may lead our clients to commence proceedings against you and may increase your liability for costs.”The letter prompted Weber to take acton on behalf of Experience Hendrix and Sony, who claimed they were unable to be sued by the defendants because both Experience members previously signed waivers.Weber has alleged that Mitchell signed a document in September 1974 releasing the Hendrix estate from legal claims and agreeing not to sue the Hendrix estate.

She’s claimed that Redding, too, signed a similar document in April 1973. Both musicians were allegedly compensated for signing the documents.The estates of both Mitchell and Redding have claimed they are no longer bound to those documents, whereas the Hendrix estate disagrees and has said they are still enforceable.