Reggaeton Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Targeting Over 100 of the Genre’s Biggest Acts to Move Forward

variety.com:

Thania Garcia A federal judge has denied the motion to dismiss a massive copyright lawsuit targeting over a 1,000 reggaeton songs from such globally recognized acts as Bad Bunny and J Balvin.

The allegations claim these acts and more participated in the illegal infringement of the instrumental percussion for “Fish Market,” a song released in 1989 by Jamaican producers Cleveland “Clevie” Browne and the late Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson.

The case consolidates numerous individual lawsuits against reggaeton artists — ranging from rising acts like Danny Ocean to legacy artists Daddy Yankee, Zion y Lennox and more — brought by Browne and the Johnson estate.

They allege these artists actively infringed on the drum pattern of “Fish Market,” described in the filing as “a programmed kick, snare, and hi-hat playing a one bar pattern; percussion instruments, including a tambourine playing through the entire bar, a synthesized ‘tom’ playing on beats one and three, and timbales that play a roll at the end of every second bar and free improvisation over the pattern for the duration of the song; and a synthesized Bb (b-flat) bass note on beats one and three of each bar, which follows the aforementioned synthesized ‘tom’ pattern.” The original, 228-page filing states this combination is “original to Mr.