The self-made internet superstar Michelle Phan, known for her make-up instructional videos and Youtube following of over 6.6 million subscribers…has found herself at the center of a lawsuit filed by Ultra Records, LLC & Ultra International Music Publishing LLC. The entities are suing Phan, claiming she has used several Ultra Music artists’ music without a license in her videos. They claim that Phan has been instructed that she needs to obtain a license for the music “and yet continues to willfully infringe in blatant disregard of Plaintiff’s rights of ownership.” Of the multitude of infringements includes music produced by the one and only Kaskade. Ryan took to Twitter to verbalize his exacerbation towards the incident, especially the fact that his music was being used as ammunition. “When I signed with Ultra, I kissed goodbye forever the rights to own my music. They own it.”
File under “For Real?”: @MichellePhan being sued by @ultrarecords for my favorite…copyright infringement.
— Kaskade (@kaskade) July 18, 2014
And the kicker..they’re citing her using my songs for the suit. Come. On. — Kaskade (@kaskade) July 18, 2014
According to Reuters, Ultra is seeking an injunction to stop Phan from using the label’s music, “and either maximum statutory damages of $150,000 for each infringed work or unspecified damages to be determined.” In one of her videos, Phan can be heard using “4AM” as the background music. Given the usage was unlicensed, fines of $150,000 per incident towards individual people on behalf of corporations is just sheer overkill.
via: inthemix
