Yellowcard has dropped a $15 million copyright lawsuit against Juice WRLD, which was filed last October before the rapper’s death, and accused him and his producers of knowingly copying the band’s song “Holly Wood Died” on his breakout hit “Lucid Dreams.”
Last Friday, July 24th, Yellowcard’s lawyer, Richard Busch — a noted copyright attorney who represented the Marvin Gaye Estate in the “Blurred Lines” case — signed off on a form to dismiss the complaint, the New York Times reports.
The status of the case had been in limbo since Juice WRLD — real name Jarad Higgins — died of an accidental overdose last December. Not long after, Yellowcard indicated that they were prepared to go ahead with the lawsuit, though the actual court proceedings were put on hold until Juice WRLD’s estate could name an executor. In court documents filed a few weeks ago, lawyers for Juice WRLD said that his mother, Carmela Wallace, had been appointed the representative of the estate, meaning she would now be the defendant in the lawsuit as well.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Busch said the decision to dismiss the lawsuit was Yellowcard’s, though he noted that it was dismissed without prejudice, meaning “it can be refiled.” He continued: “My clients really were uncomfortable about pursuing this action against Juice WRLD’s grieving mother as the representative of his Estate. As they said previously, they also are incredibly sympathetic about his death, and were torn initially about pursuing this in light of his death. As a result of all that has happened, they simply need additional time to decide what they want to do.”
Christine Lepera, an attorney representing Juice WRLD’s estate, said, “Defendants were fully prepared to defend against the allegations – viewed as without merit – and remain so prepared should it become necessary. There was no settlement or consideration whatsoever for Plaintiffs’ voluntary dismissal.”
Earlier this month, on July 10th, Juice WRLD’s first posthumous album, Legends Never Die, was released. The record debuted at Number One on the Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums chart and moved 517,800 album-quevalent units to give it the biggest debut week of 2020.
