14 DAY TRIAL // This didn’t take long: a legal dispute is brewing over the rights to the Internet phenomenon Rebecca Black and her “Friday” hit song. Black and her mother are saying Ark Music Factory, the company that produced the track, is in violation of copyright for promoting it online.
Black shot to international fame last month, with “Friday” becoming one of the biggest things on YouTube ever: it has over 81 million views right now.
Estimates indicate she’s already made money from it (about $1 million no less), even though she was not, at the time of the release, a recording artist and had no deal for an album just yet.
In the meantime, things have changed and Black is now officially among the hottest commodities around, which would explain why she’s trying to be the sole copyright holder of “Friday.”
Rolling Stone reports Black and her mother sent Ark Music Factory a letter saying it has no right to promote “Friday” on its website, claim Black is signed with Ark, or make money off her in any way.
“Rebecca Black […] and her mother, Georgina Marquez Kelly, are accusing Ark Music Factory, which produced ‘Friday,’ of copyright infringement and unlawful exploitation of publicity rights,” the magazine reports.
According to them, Ark is only responsible for producing “Friday,” for which job Marquez Kelly paid $4,000, but it’s supposed to pay for things like posting the video on YouTube or on the official website of the company.
Barry Rothman, attorney for Ark, fights back, saying that, now that Rebecca is famous, she and her mom are trying to rip off the company that helped her get there.
“They say they own the composition. Nothing could be further from the truth. If they go forward and license it or attempt to copyright it in their name, that would be copyright infringement and we’d act accordingly under the circumstances,” Rothman says, adding that Black had zero creative input on the song, therefore zero rights over it.
“Now they are turning it around and saying they were exploited, but clearly that is not the case when they were thanking me for forwarding them all the interviews with Rebecca and all the positive comments from YouTube,” Ark Music Factory partner Clarence Jey says for the same publication.
While all this is going on, Rebecca Black is recording her debut album and is getting ready for the release of her second single, “LOL.”