A unanimous Appellate Division, First Department, panel on May 2 affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit by Duke Ellington’s grandson, Paul Ellington, accusing EMI Music of unfairly depriving him of royalties from overseas sales of his grandfather’s records.
Duke Ellington signed a contract with EMI in 1961 under which he would get 50 percent of the revenues received by EMI from foreign sales. At the time, Ellington’s records were sold abroad by independent companies, which paid royalties to EMI. Since then, EMI, like most music publishers, has acquired ownership of the foreign companies that sold its recordings. Paul Ellington alleged that this has allowed EMI to skim off part of the royalties intended for his grandfather’s estate by paying commissions to its foreign affiliates before paying half the remaining proceeds to the estate.
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