In Syl Johnson v. UMG Recording, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Seventh Circuit dealt with the question of whether musician Syl Johnson could sue in 2016 over sampling of his song Different Strokes where he'd entered into a settlement in 2013 dealing with 80 similar sampling claims.The Court noted:
Johnson observes that the current suit seeks relief based on five songs that were not part of the 2013 suit. But Johnson could have included those five songs in the 2013 suit, which like this one contended that the defendants published excerpts of Different Strokes. None of the recordings in question post-dates the 2013 suit. Litigants are not entitled to split their claims into multiple pieces; the branch of preclusion that forbids this, known as merger and bar, requires litigants to raise in one suit all claims and theories that are part of the same transaction and could have been litigated at the same time. See, e.g., Palka v. Chicago, 662 F.3d 428, 437 (7th Cir. 2011); Herrmann v. Cencom Cable Associates, Inc., 999 F.2d 223 (7th Cir. 1993). The theory behind the current suit is identical to the theory behind the 2013 suit. If one publisher incorporated samples of Different Strokes into 100 of its releases, Johnson could not file 100 separate suits. He must instead litigate all closely related claims at once.
Because Johnson had not tried to reopen or "collaterally attack" the 2013 judgment before starting the 2016 action, Johnson's 2016 suit was barred.
Full decision here.
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Copyright law, fine art and navigating the courts. Attorney and AuthorCopyright Litigation Handbook (Thomson Reuters Westlaw 2015-2016) by Raymond J. Dowd
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