Supreme Court sides with music producer in copyright case over clip of Flo Rida hit

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided with a music producer in a copyright case Thursday, allowing him to seek more than a decade’s worth of damages for a sample used in a song hit by Flo Rida.

The 6-3 ruling came in a case filed by Sherman Nealy, who was suing over music used in rapper Flo Rida’s 2008 song “In the Ayer.” He has also been featured on TV shows like “So You Think You Can Dance.”

Nealy says he didn’t discover his former collaborator had signed a deal with a record label allowing sampling of the song “Jam the Box” until 2016. He filed a lawsuit two years later for damages and interests dating back to the song’s release.

Copyright law states that lawsuits must be filed within three years of infringement, or upon discovery. Record company Warner Chappell argued that this meant Nealy would only be entitled to three years of royalties at most.

The question of how far back damages can go has divided appeals courts, and it’s a question that industry groups like the Recording Industry Association of America have asked the Supreme Court to decide.

The opinion delivered Thursday was written by Justice Elena Kagan, joined by her liberal colleagues Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson as well as conservative Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

“There is no time limit for monetary recovery. Thus, a copyright owner with a timely claim is entitled to damages for infringement regardless of when the infringement occurred,” Kagan wrote.

Three conservative justices dissented. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the majority sidestepped the important question: whether Nealy’s claim was valid to begin with, or whether copyright holders should have to demonstrate some sort of fraud in order to sue for violations older. The dissenters said the suit should have been dismissed.

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