Salt-N-Pepa’s Music Ownership Appeal Has a ‘Foundational Deficiency,’ UMG Argues
Categoria: Musica
The world's largest music company says an appellate court should reject the rappers' legal challenge.
Por Billboard | 06/05/2026
Universal Music Group (UMG) is continuing to fight Salt-N-Pepa ’s attempt to claw back ownership of the duo’s master recordings, arguing in a new appellate filing that copyright law’s termination right is not absolute. The world’s largest music company submitted a brief on Tuesday (May 5) urging the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to reject the challenge lodged by Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton. The rappers sued UMG last year for refusing to revert their iconic late ’80s and early ’90s catalog under the so-called “termination right,” a tenet of the U.S. Copyright Act that allows artists to reclaim ownership of intellectual property decades after signing it away. Related Salt-N-Pepa Music Ownership Appeal: Irving Azoff Org Supports Duo, Blasts ‘Ill-Conceived’ Court Ruling Fugees' Pras Michel Surrenders to Authorities to Begin 14-Year Prison Sentence, Vows to Appeal Ahead of New Orleans Jazz Fest, Former Police Officer Arrested for Plan to Kill Black People in a Mass Shooting A New York federal judge threw out the lawsuit in January, determining that Salt-N-Pepa had no termination rights because they did not actually sign their 1986 record deal. Rather, the contract was between Next Plateau Records, which has since been absorbed by UMG, and the rappers’ producer, Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor. Salt-N-Pepa have argued on appeal , with support from Irving Azoff ’s Music Artists Coalition , that this ruling goes against Congress’ intent in crafting the termination right — that is, to give power back to creators who often lack leverage in early-career negotiations. But in Tuesday’s response, UMG said Salt-N-Pepa cannot explain away the “foundational deficiency” of the duo’s lawsuit with a “single-minded focus on the termination provision’s general intent to benefit authors.” “While plaintiffs and their amici emphasize the congressional policy to give authors a second chance to capture the value of their creative works through a termination right, they ignore the extent to which the entire termination provision is itself a carefully balanced scheme that also places important limitations on when and how the right may be exercised,” wrote UMG’s lawyers. “[The lower court] correctly found that the present case falls clearly outside the scope of any termination right created by Congress.” According to UMG, one of these key limitations carved out by Congress was that artists cannot terminate a copyright transfer made by a third party like Azor. That’s exactly what the rappers tried to do here, UMG argued, adding that the New York judge in no way reinvented the wheel by shutting them down. Related Major Labels Hire Elite Supreme Court Attorney for Battle Over Global Copyright Termination Rights “Plaintiffs also criticize the district court for purportedly creating a new standard,” wrote the company’s attorneys. “However, properly understood in the context of the entire opinion, the district court’s analysis of