This past week a federal jury has found Island Def Jam guilty of copyright infringement and fraud. The lawsuit was filed by indy label TVT Records, who was kept from releasing the Cash Money Click album by Def Jam. Def Jam/Murder Inc. artist Ja Rule is a part of CMC and signed a contract with TVT in 1994 to do an album as part of CMC.
TVT claims that Ja Rule and Irv Gotti received permission from Lyor Cohen to do the project, and they worked a deal with Def Jam allowing Def Jam to get a percentage of the profits. On the strength of this agreement, TVT gave CMC a $400,000 advance and spent thousands of dollars to produce the album.
Last summer, Def Jam balked at the previous agreement and prevented TVT from releasing the album. In addition, Def Jam/Murder Inc. used “The Rain,” for “Irv Gotti Presents The Inc.” without TVT’s permission. The song was slated to appear on the Cash Money Click album. The decision of the amount of damages paid to TVT will be made on April 28th.
