Nine Months Later, Sony Music Drops Copyright Suit Alleging Missing Whitney Houston Biopic Sync Payments

Sony Music Entertainment (SME) has officially dropped a missing-payments lawsuit filed against the production companies behind a Whitney Houston biopic.

The major label just recently moved to dismiss the action with prejudice, about nine months after first submitting the straightforward complaint. In a nutshell – and as we reported at the time – SME specifically took aim at the production companies on 2022’s Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody.

(The original suit confirmed a portion of these defendant entities’ individual producers by name, but opted against mentioning, directly or indirectly, Clive Davis’ production credit on the 146-minute release. Actor Stanley Tucci played a role based on Davis.)

Long story short, those companies allegedly entered into sync agreements to feature 24 Houston tracks (some subsequently licensed to Duolingo earlier this year) in the film. The plaintiffs redacted the pacts’ financial specifics, but given the action and the sizable collection of commercially prominent works at hand, the bill was presumably large.

In any event, multiple twists, turns, and fruitless communications later, the defendants allegedly failed to cough up the due sum by (and following) a cutoff in 2023, according to the filing parties. (All told, I Wanna Dance With Somebody reportedly made $59.4 million at the box office on a $45 million budget.)

Now, while it’s unclear exactly how Sony Music and the production-house defendants resolved the dispute, the courtroom confrontation is in the rearview.

Per the initially highlighted dismissal motion, SME has shelved the action with prejudice – albeit without shedding light on possible settlement terms or other supplemental details.

Unsurprisingly, even with this copyright case’s resolution as well as Ed Sheeran’s victory in a marathon complaint involving “Thinking Out Loud,” the stack of industry and industry-adjacent litigation has still gotten a bit taller during November’s initial 19 days.

Most notably, this stack includes the half-billion-dollar copyright complaint that Universal Music Group levied against Believe and TuneCore over alleged “rampant piracy” when it comes to distributing infringing works to DSPs.

Also underway is a unique showdown centering on an allegedly unauthorized sample within another sample yet. As described by rapper Plies, Soulja Boy interpolated “Me & My Goons” without permission in “Pretty Boy Swag.”

Then, that purported infringement set the stage for an additional unapproved usage when Soulja Boy allowed Megan Thee Stallion and GloRilla to sample “Pretty Boy Swag” in “Wanna Be,” according to the suit.