A courtroom loss just morphed into a fresh appellate fight as Salt-N-Pepa push back against Universal Music Group over who actually controls their master recordings.
Salt-N-Pepa appeals copyright loss
Salt-N-Pepa appeals copyright loss
- Salt-N-Pepa filed an appeal after Judge Denise Cote tossed their case.
- February paperwork landed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
- Cote had ruled they never possessed the sound recording copyrights.
- Because of that finding, Section 203 termination rights were shut down.
- Cheryl James and Sandra Denton first signed with Noise In The Attic Productions Inc.
- That deal handed master ownership to Hurby Azor’s company.
- Same day, Azor shifted rights to Next Plateau Records.
- Inducement letter signatures failed to convince the judge.
- March 2022 saw the duo send termination notices to UMG.
- June 2022 brought UMG’s rejection of those notices.
- May 2024 triggered removals of dozens of tracks from US streaming.
- In July 2024, a temporary exploitation pact was created that ended in April 2025.
- The original complaint claimed about 1000000 dollars in five months of sync revenue.
- Annual exploitation allegedly pulls in tens of millions of dollars.
- Early catalog remains unavailable on US streaming platforms.
- November 2025 marked their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- Richard S. Busch of King and Ballow entered as appellate counsel.
- In 2018, Busch backed the Marvin Gaye heirs against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke.
- That year, he also represented The Script in a dispute with James Arthur.
- Later cases involved Yellowcard, Juice Wrld, and Travis Scott.
