Orbison Estate Sues Sony

NASHVILLE‹The Roy Orbison estate has filed a $12 million lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment Inc., charging that royalties on both domestic and international sales on Orbison product have been consistently underpaid (BillboardBulletin, July 16).
The suit‹filed by Orbison's widow, Barbara, executrix of the Orbison estate‹was filed July 8 in U.S. District Court here and also seeks punitive damages and the return to the estate of Orbison's master recordings for Monument Records.
Sony had no comment on the suit.
Barbara Orbison told Billboard she is fully confident the Orbison estate will prevail.
The late Orbison had his biggest hits for Monument, then part of CBS Nashville, from 1960-1965. The suit says his existing agreement with Monument regarding royalties was signed in 1976. After Monument went into bankruptcy in 1983, CBS Special Products bought Orbison's masters from the label. Subsequently, says the suit, CBS and Orbison signed a royalty agreement in 1987 in accordance with his 1976 Monument agreement.
Sony bought CBS in January 1988. Orbison died of a heart attack in December of that year.
The suit charges that from 1988, Sony consistently misrepresented royalties that should have been paid for domestic and international releases. It further alleges that, in 1991, Sony‹without informing the Orbison estate‹licensed the Orbison masters to MCR Productions A.G. (known as Mittrich) for world rights excluding North America.
Mittrich, the suit claims, "had a reputation for failing to properly account to licensors for exploitation revenues and for royalties to artists whose vocal performances were embodied in the sound recordings Mittrich manufactured and/or distributed or sold."
The suit also says a $500,000 advance from Mittrich was concealed from the estate.
The Orbison estate, the suit says, began trying to audit Sony in 1992 but was met with resistance. According to the suit, the right to audit was included in Orbison's contracts. Repeated attempts by the estate's auditor to gain complete access to Sony books and records involving Orbison product were rebuffed, says the suit. The auditor sought to determine the actual royalty rate of Orbison product sold through Sony's international entities and through Columbia House, the Sony-Warner Bros. mail-order record club. The number of free and bonus copies of product involved with that operation was sought, as were mechanical royalty figures.
Another charge involves an allegedly unreported licensing fee of $25,000 for use of the Orbison recording of "Oh, Pretty Woman" in the movie "Pretty Woman."