The Hollywood Reporter said Celeste Farrell has filed a class-action suit in a New Jersey court, of which she claims that thousands of customers has been duped by a recording company for its poor re-recorded songs for the compilation albums it produced. The defendant named in the lawsuit is Tutm Entertainment (d/b/a Drew's Entertainment), of whom Farrell said had cheated out customers for indirectly claiming that the people who sang songs in their albums "Hits of the 80's" and "Hits of the 90's" are of the real deal. The albums feature Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby," Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now" and Color Me Badd's "I Wanna Sex You Up".
"Instead of conveying the source of the recording to allow the consumer to make an informed purchase decision, Tutm provides no information on the Albums' cover or back label to indicate to the consumer that the songs are not the original songs," the lawsuit read.
THR said that musicians tend to re-record their past hits on two concerns. One concern is that the record label whom the artist had originally recorded the song with now owns the sound recording forever. However, there are certain workarounds in their old contracts that singers could get past and allow them to re-record versions of their songs in other record labels. Moreover, the re-recording of a song will allow an artist to capitalize on the former fame the original song it gained to be able to get additional income in terms of the sale or licensing of the re-recorded song.
Another concern, said THR, is the 1976 Copyright Act. Because of the statute, musicians could re-record past hits as soon as they regain publishing rights to their songs to be sold entirely to another record label or earn full revenue from the re-recorded hit.
On the other hand, Farrell said that selling unlabeled re-recordings is a fraudulent business practice, and that by not labeling the album indicating that the songs were already re-recorded tracks allegedly deprived customers of their right to an informed choice. Farrell is seeking a minimum of $5 million in damages, THR said.
