7/28/2008

Ex-Pumpkins Sue Virgin Over Royalties

Billboard:

In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, James Iha and D'Arcy Wretzky-Brown, both 40, accused Virgin Records America Inc. of not paying them for music downloads and other digitally delivered Smashing Pumpkins music.

Iha and Wretzky-Brown, who were founding members of the Smashing Pumpkins, said in their lawsuit that, five years after the band first broke up in 2000, Virgin entered into a deal with [Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy] Corgan, 41, and began licensing Smashing Pumpkins music through electronic transmissions.

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To date, Virgin continues to engage in the exploitation of electronic transmissions of the band's recordings without plaintiffs' consent," the lawsuit states.

A spokeswoman for Virgin, a unit of privately held EMI Group, declined to comment on the lawsuit because the company had not received it.