Laws v. Sony Music Entertainment
United States Court of Appeals for the Central District of California
294 F. Supp. 2d 1160 (2003)
Debra Laws (plaintiff) recorded "Very Special" in 1981 under a recording agreement that gave Elektra Records the copyright and licensing rights to the master recording; Elektra's parent company Warner later licensed the recording in 2002 to Sony Music Entertainment (Sony) (defendant) for sampling in Jennifer Lopez's hit "All I Have," with a required credit to Laws. After the song's success, Laws sued Sony under California law for misappropriating her name and voice for commercial purposes, and the district court found her claims preempted by federal copyright law, prompting her appeal.
Whether federal copyright law preempts state law right-of-publicity claims if the state-law claims are made in relation to a fixed recording.