(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Legendary comedian Richard Pryor has sued Universal Music Group for allegedly marketing and selling 11 of his recordings without having the license to do so.
Pryor filed suit last Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking unspecified damages for unfair competition, conversion, unjust enrichment and other claims. UMG representatives said they had not seen the case could not comment, according to Billboard.
According to the suit, Pryor did not realized for years that UMG was claiming to have licensed his catalog, including “Are You Serious?,” “Wizard of Comedy,” “Black Ben and the Blacksmith,” “Richard Pryor,” “I Ain’t Lied Yet” and “Everything’s Big.”
Pryor’s suit accuses the company of “reaping substantial profits from [the recordings] without ever having acquired any rights in such recordings.”
The case claims UMG, through the division PolyGram Records, sought to acquire rights to the recordings via a contract with Found Money Inc., which was to acquire the rights through MB Music Inc. The contract also called for the rights to revert back to Found Money if the recordings were not released in a defined period of time.
It is claimed that UMG purported to retain the rights even after they had reverted back to Found Money. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
