Courtney Love Sues UMG Recordings Charging Violation of California Labor Code.

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 28 /PRNewswire/ --

Singer Courtney Love has filed a cross-complaint against UMG Recordings for violating California Labor Code Section 2855, which allows the termination of contracts between creative artists and entertainment companies after seven years, according to A. Barry Cappello, attorney for Love. (Courtney Love v. Geffen Records, Inc., UMG Recordings, Inc. et al., Case No. BC 223364, Los Angeles Superior Court, February 28, 2001). Superior Court Judge Fumiko Wasserman granted the motion for the cross-complaint in a hearing this morning in Los Angeles.

The cross-complaint was the result of a complaint filed by UMG Recordings against Love when she attempted to end her contractual relationship with the recording company.

"The Labor Code (known as the "De Haviland Law") was created in 1945 to end the oppressive studio contract system that was standard at the time," says Cappello, managing partner in the Santa Barbara law firm of Cappello & McCann. "Film studios literally held in their hands the artistic and financial futures of its under-contract actors. It was a servitude existence that the state legislature corrected 56 years ago. Labor Code Section 2855 prevents any contract between a creative artist and an entertainment company to extend past seven years, essentially giving artists the opportunity to obtain their freedom if they are experiencing repressive or unfair working conditions. Unfortunately, while today's film actors enjoy the equitable compensation and creative freedom intended by Section 2855, music artists do not."

In 1987, the record companies lobbied the state legislature to pass an amendment to Section 2855 that applies only to recording artists. The amendment allows record companies to sue recording artists for damages if the artists do not fulfill their original contract. "But after seven years, this amendment in no longer relevant. The Section clearly states that artists have the legal right to terminate a contract with a recording company after seven years without repercussions," says Cappello. "Despite this, the recording industry continues to intimidate artists who try to terminate their contracts after seven years by suing them for future damages in the form of lost profits. We're out to prove that this is patently inconsistent with the provisions allowed by state law. When we do, it will shake the very core of the way business is conducted in the music industry, and it will give countless musicians the financial and artistic freedom they do not currently enjoy."

Furthermore, the complaint alleges that major record companies force unconscionable, impossible-to-perform contracts upon recording artists with the full knowledge that the artists have no choice except to sign them if they want access to the marketing campaigns that only a major label can provide. Artists who hope to hear their music on the radio, see their videos on MTV and have a chance to sell millions of records must sign one of these unfair contracts, since they span the entire industry. Standard recording agreements require artists to bear so many of their own production and marketing costs that it virtually guarantees little or no financial return for almost every recording artist.

"Story after story gets told about artists like the Chambers Brothers who wrote and recorded 'Time Has Come Today' and have never been paid a dime in royalties. Legendary blues singer Howlin' Wolf was broke when he died. Many of the most popular hard rock bands of the '80s like Skid Row, Slaughter, Warrant, Ratt and Poison sold tens of millions of records but still found themselves broke by the end of the '90s with no health care or benefits from their ...