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Cher sues widow of ex-husband, music partner over Sonny & Cher song royalties

Cher sues widow of ex-husband, music partner over Sonny & Cher song royalties

The singer has filed a lawsuit against Mary Bono and Sony Bono's estate for withholding her share of royalties.
16 Oct, 2021

Cher has sued former Republican US Representative Mary Bono, widow of her late musical partner and ex-husband Sonny Bono, and his estate in Los Angeles federal court for allegedly withholding her share of royalties in Sonny & Cher songs.

Cher asked the court on Wednesday to block the trust that administers Sonny Bono's royalties from terminating her rights from a divorce settlement that granted her half of Sonny & Cher's royalties.

Mary Bono, the trust's sole trustee, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment; neither did Cher's attorney Peter Anderson of Davis Wright Tremaine.

Cher and Sonny Bono began performing together as Sonny & Cher in 1964, married in 1967, and divorced in 1978. The complaint said they had agreed to divide the royalties from songs like 'I Got You Babe' and 'The Beat Goes On' equally after their divorce.

Under the Copyright Act, authors can cancel transfers of their copyrights and reclaim them after 35 years in some circumstances. The provision has been at the centre of recent disputes involving Marvel, its parent company Disney, and Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies.

According to the complaint, the Bono Collection Trust claimed that its 2016 notices of termination to several music publishers also ended Cher's royalty rights.

Cher said the trust told her last month that it would stop paying her share of the royalties when the terminations go into effect, and that she no longer had the right to approve uses of their songs, among other things.

Cher asked the court for a declaratory judgment that the estate didn't terminate her rights, and requested at least $1 million in damages for breaching the divorce settlement.

Comments

Chrís Dăn Oct 16, 2021 12:48pm
Good.
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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad Oct 16, 2021 01:14pm
Unfortunately, more than Ninety Five percent of issues like this arise as part and parcel of an "insider's job."
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Haider Durrani Oct 17, 2021 01:48am
At one end she's was cautioned about rights of an elephant and on other side she's concerned her own rights. Vicious cycle of rights surrounds her.
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