Editor’s Note: Following publication of this piece, a representative with Dolly Parton’s publicist team and BMI told Court Watch that Ms. Parton was not aware of the filing of the initial lawsuit and that the decision to initiate legal proceedings against businesses traditionally rests with the performing rights organization such as BMI. The story has been updated throughout to reflect that. The parties involved were asked and given multiple days prior to publication to provide information about the impetus of the lawsuit filed on behalf of Ms. Parton company.
By Seamus Hughes
America needs its heroes. In these highly charged times, we desperately require unifying figures to bring us back from our partisan brink.
Nowadays, it seems like there is nothing that Americans won’t fight about. There are very few sacred things in America. But every once in a while, there’s an institution that transcends our partisan proclivities. Dolly Parton is that institution. Be it her decades of seminal country music, her beloved amusement park, or her imagination library which provides hundreds of thousands of free books to children across America every year. Dolly, who has reached the infamy status of a first name reference, is universally adored by millions. And if you ask any even lukewarm Parton fan where the singer is from, they’ll immediately know it is the great state of Tennessee.
So we felt an immense pit in our stomach when we saw a new lawsuit filed on behalf of Dolly Parton’s company against a small business in Tennessee for copyright infringement by playing ‘I Will Always Love You’ at an Irish pub.
Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), a company that sells the licensing for 22.4 million songs to public establishments, filed a lawsuit against the Shamrock Pub in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, on Dolly and other musicians’ behalf. According to their court filing, Broadcast Music attempted to call, mail, and email the Shamrock Pub forty times to stop playing music by Dolly and other musicians Broadcast Music represents. The suit lists several plaintiffs beyond BMI and the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame country legend Parton, including a label representing Eddie Holland and Norman Whitfield for purported copyright infringement of ‘Ain’t Too Proud to Beg’ and the rapper Soulja Boy for ‘Crank Dat Soulja Boy.’
In the filing, Broadcast Music argues that the Shamrock Pub’s ability to play music covered in its licensing product, such as ‘I Will Always Love You’ by the 11-time Grammy Award-winning Parton, is an “irreparable injury for which they have no adequate remedy at law.”
A search by Court Watch revealed dozens of lawsuits filed around the country by Broadcast Music against small businesses in an apparent effort by the company to secure damages from copyright cases. When asked about the deluge of lawsuits, a representative from BMI noted in part that, “when a business performs music and does not have a music license already in place, BMI attempts to work with those business owners to ensure that they have the necessary permission to publicly perform music. It is important to understand that we only take legal action as a very last resort which is why we spend so much time, sometimes years, trying to educate businesses about the value that music brings to their establishment, the requirements of copyright law, and the importance of maintaining a music license.”
We reached out to the Shamrock Pub for a comment and were told that the request would be forwarded to the bar’s owner. On Tuesday, through her publicist team, Court Watch requested to speak with Ms. Parton about impetus of the lawsuit and the thinking behind the lawsuit against a small business in her home state of Tennessee. They acknowledged the initial receipt of our inquiry but went dark after that. Following publication of this story, a publicist with Ms. Parton told Court Watch, “Dolly did NOT file this lawsuit — BMI did.”
Shortly after a final inquiry by us before publication, BMI lawyers, on behalf of Parton’s company, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against the restaurant.
A representative from Broadcast Music stated that, “The song in question was included in error and the complaint has since been withdrawn.” When asked if BMI would file a new lawsuit against Shamrock Pub for the other listed artist tracks BMI noted that “we are considering our options moving forward.”
Court Watch will keep to its namesake and watch that court for any new movements.
But if you ever find yourself in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, raise a pint of Guinness at the Shamrock Pub and toast to a Court Watch inquiry that saved (at least temporarily) a business from a costly lawsuit and kept sacred the legacy of one the last great American heroes.
The Docket Roundup
We’ve been working 9 to 5 and then some to review all the happenings in this week’s federal court proceedings. So, let’s find our own islands in the docket stream and dive right in.
A former Customs and Border Patrol agent was convicted in a jury trial of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a middle school girl. Prosecutors said at trial that the agent used his authority as a law enforcement officer to threaten to arrest and take the minor from her middle school.
A California man was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill a member of Congress, stating “I’m gonna shoot up ur office tomorrow u Palestinian scum.”
A Mississippi man was charged with threatening to commit a school shooting.
The feds have uncovered a 138 million dollar ponzi scheme in Texas.
Machine gun conversion parts are now being shipped hidden in model toy car kits.
Prosecutors in New York filed a criminal complaint against six Hamas leaders for October 7th.
Who knew? National Public Data, a company that collects and stores public and private information for background check services, would be the target of a data breach, and now a plaintiff suit for improperly storing that data.
A twenty-one-year-old Utah man allegedly shot his friend during an argument over who would drive the car they were in.
If President Biden wants his Vice President to win Missouri in November, there’s an easy presidential pardon to make.
Kansas City man allegedly filmed TikToks threatening to kill cops, Republicans, and Donald Trump. The man’s TikTok account was still active at the time of writing and had a profile picture of a campaign sign that said: “F### ‘em both ‘24.”
This case is an interesting window into how online romance scammers communicate and move money from U.S. banks offshore.
FBI agents want to look at the Snap texts of a man accused of murder on the Chickasaw Nation after he was reportedly recorded telling a relative to delete them over a jail phone. We also noted that the Snap account in question had a seemingly fitting username.Subscribe now
A New Jersey law firm is suing a terminally online man for defamation.
A former top aide to New York governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul was charged with allegedly acting as a foreign agent for China while serving in state government. The allegations include that the aide used her position to block high-ranking Taiwanese officials from meeting with top NY state officials while promoting closer ties between PRC and NY state officials. Her husband was also arrested and faces accusations of laundering millions of dollars from China, a purported payout for the couple’s activities for the PRC.
The U.S. government just got a new private jet: National security prosecutors announced the seizure and extradition of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro’s Dassault Falcon 900EX.
Prosecutors are trying to rope back $36,552 of $746,000 stolen from one of those wrong number text scams.
Salt Lake City Police officers initiated a traffic stop on a bicyclist riding in the opposite direction of traffic, which led to a search of the cyclist’s backpack. Officers reportedly found 2,000 pills that presumptively tested positive for fentanyl, a handgun, and $55,000 in cash all stashed in the backpack.
A seventy-six-year-old retired oil executive was arrested for purportedly smuggling American-made drone and airplane parts into Iran.
A man in Ohio pled guilty to a gun charge and for posting threats against law enforcement online, including one instance in which he posted a picture of himself aiming a semi-automatic rifle in his residence at a police officer in a parked cruiser down the street.
Rudy Giuliani really wants to hang onto his Palm Beach condo.
Prosecutors say there’s a ring of shady dentists in Puerto Rico.
It’s Russia Week at the Department of Justice. National security prosecutors announced indictments against two employees at RT, the Russian state-run news channel, for spreading pro-Russian propaganda in the U.S. A Virginia woman was charged with working for a sanctioned Russian TV channel. There’s ten million dollars on the table for anyone who brings in six Russian spies.
A Denver-area man was arrested for purportedly posting threats to kill judges, federal law enforcement, and redacted politicians on forums popular with QAnon supporters on the alt-social media sites Gab and Rumble.
Thanks for reading. Also, we know it’s the start of the NFL season. We hope the FBI agents are properly enjoying their Denver Broncos 2024 luxury box season tickets, courtesy of a cryptocurrency scam.
And finally, thankfully for all parties involved, we can still enjoy guilt-free Dolly’s new Pumpkin Spice cookie mix that launched yesterday. Hopefully no one copies the recipe without expressed written and verbal permission.