Last Friday according to a report by Reuters, the family of legendary reggae artist Bob Marley has lost a lawsuit that would have given them sole rights to some of the icon’s most celebrated recordings. Instead a U.S District Court awarded the recording rights of five Marley albums to Universal Music Group Recordings.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan said the UMG Recordings unit of Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group is the rightful owner of copyrights to five albums that Marley had recorded between 1973 and 1977 for Island Records.
The albums “Catch a Fire,” “Burnin’,” “Natty Dread,” “Rastaman Vibrations” and “Exodus” were recorded with Marley’s band The Wailers. They include some of Marley’s best-known songs, including “Get Up, Stand Up,” “I Shot the Sheriff,” “No Woman, No Cry” and “One Love.”
This is serious. I was under the impression that Chris Blackwell and the Marley estate made Bob’s music exclusive as to not pimp it out to big corporations. With UMG now at the reigns we take what is one in only a handful of legendary musical prophets catalogs away from the people and throw it out there like fish bait just to feed some hungry sharks who don’t have taste or appreciation enough to understand what Bob’s words and music symbolized. Basically just killing culture, one license at a time! Pure Fuckry is what I say!