Multiple award winning singer, Beyonce’s Parkwood Entertainment has being sued for copyright infringement by artist Melvin Moore, who claims his work was used without permission in a slew of songs by Chloe Bailey, who is signed to the label.
Moore, also known as 4Rest (Forest), filed a lawsuit in New York on Friday alleging fraudulent misrepresentation, violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), civil conspiracy, and deceptive business practices.
The Grammy-nominee, 39, claims in the court documents that he ‘contributed substantial original lyrics, melodies, and creative direction to several master recordings’ in Bailey’s album Trouble in Paradise, which was released in August.
Those recordings included Favorite, Might As Well, and Same Lingerie – all of which he alleges were ‘commercially released by Defendants and embodied on without his knowledge or consent.’
He alleged that prior to the 26-year-old promoting songs such as Same Lingerie on her Instagram ‘to over 260,000 people,’ she ‘intentionally disregarded’ the DMCA Violation and Cease and Desist notice he had issued her.
Moore went on to explain that Same Lingerie was inspired by a relationship with a woman. He recorded the original demos for the song which was based on her ‘hesitations and emotional struggles following a previous relationship.’
He is requesting punitive damages of $5 million per song.
He is also demanding a jury trial and seeking an award for statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringement, statutory damages of up to $25,000 per DMCA violation, and compensatory and punitive damages for willful copyright infringement, fraudulent misrepresentation, and civil conspiracy.
The California-based artist has also made the allegations against Columbia Records, Music Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, ABC Corporation 1-10, John and Jane Does 1-10.
He claims the defendants’ ‘misappropriated his contributions to the Works, falsely registered the Works under their names, and exploited the Works for commercial gain across multiple revenue-generating commercially viewable platforms without authorization.’
A source told Daily Mail that Beyoncé, 43, is furious that this spiraled out of control.
‘Beyoncé is incensed that it has gone this far,’ they said. ‘This lawsuit is a terrible look for everyone involved.’
They claimed communication between Bailey and Parkwood had been ‘breaking down’ in the weeks leading up to the filing and they were ‘petrified of being drawn into a lawsuit about theft of intellectual property, especially after seeing how damaging the Marvin Gaye lawsuit was to Robin Thicke’s career.’
