In creating a business plan for Deadly Viper Recordings my
focus originally was to do a specific event. I want to add how the label will
run on the business plan as well. I found two recent legal issues that have
happened within the Electronic Dance Music scene. I have a personal experience
during Winter Music Conference 2013 that I would like to share, which surrounds
a legal issue. Baauer on Mad Decent was sued for his “Harlem Shake” song that
went viral on YouTube and the Internet. Deadmau5 is currently in legal issues with Disney over his Mau5head design and logo. In 2013, I spun at a Winter
Music Conference event in Miami called Moomba+ and Friends, where one label
backed out due to specifics not held the day of the event that were on the
contract.
Mad Decent missed being sued over “Harlem Shake” because
they had Baauer sign a contract stating if anything happens it is his
responsibility. Hector “el Father” wanted to get money for his vocal sample,
“con los terroristas,” used in the track. The lawsuits came about after the
money started coming in for the song.
Hennessy’s “and do the Harlem shake” sample was taken care off with a
payment outside of court. Diplo was able to help Baauer out with Hector “el
Father” by reaching out to his vast network over in Puerto Rico.
In 2013 I played an event called Moomba+ and Friends. I flew
down from Wisconsin to Miami to play this once in a lifetime event. No one knew
this one event would be in the Moombahton history books. Rot10 Musik had a
whole artist line-up to play the event. When the first artists arrived to sound
check they noticed the equipment was not up to their standards agreed upon in
the contract. The artists left and contacted the head of the label. In turn,
the President decided to pull the whole crew off the show. The owner of Moomba+
at the time got upset but in my opinion there was nothing he could do. In the
contract it stated that they wanted specific equipment that was agreed upon. The
equipment wasn’t there so the artists walked away.
Deadmau5 is in a legal scuffle with Disney over his logo.
Disney is stating that his logo and Mau5head are similar to the Mickey Mouse
head. Deadmau5 fired back with a cease and desist order for one of Disney’s videos
that uses one of his songs without proper permission. Disney claims that they got
the song properly with permission granted and payment. The two parties are
still battling out over the legal claim and we’ll see where the battle will go.
