{"id":916649,"date":"2026-07-01T03:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T08:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/01\/sony-music-and-beyonces-parkwood-entertainment-beat-alien-superstar-sample-suit-the-plaintiff-lacks-standing-to-prosecute-this-case\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T03:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T08:17:19","slug":"sony-music-and-beyonces-parkwood-entertainment-beat-alien-superstar-sample-suit-the-plaintiff-lacks-standing-to-prosecute-this-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/01\/sony-music-and-beyonces-parkwood-entertainment-beat-alien-superstar-sample-suit-the-plaintiff-lacks-standing-to-prosecute-this-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony Music and Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Parkwood Entertainment Beat \u2018Alien Superstar\u2019 Sample Suit \u2014 The \u2018Plaintiff Lacks Standing to Prosecute This Case\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entertainment <\/p>\n

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\"Entertainment<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Raph_PH<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Entertainment A federal court has tossed an infringement lawsuit filed against Sony Music, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Parkwood Entertainment, and others over an allegedly unauthorized sample in 2022\u2019s \u201cAlien Superstar.\u201d <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Judge Mark Scarsi just recently dismissed<\/a> the copyright and breach of contract complaint for lack of standing. And as is so often the case in rights-related disputes, the legal battle isn\u2019t light on multifaceted background details.<\/p>\n

But in brief, plaintiff Hirose Enterprises is said to own a piece (or perhaps all) of 1998\u2019s \u201cMoon-Raker,\u201d<\/a> which John Holiday, also a defendant, penned and recorded as Johnny Dangerous\/Foremost Poets.<\/p>\n

This refers specifically to \u201c100% ownership of the sound recording\u201d and 50% ownership (or 100%, per the amended complaint as opposed to the initial iteration<\/a>) on the publishing side.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, both Hirose Enterprises and the entity (Soundmen on Wax) that\u2019s said to have transferred the rights are headed by an individual named Shuji Hirose.<\/p>\n

Putting the information on the backburner for a moment, Sony Music and Parkwood nevertheless opted to license the \u201cMoon-Raker\u201d sample from Holiday himself. The track\u2019s spoken-word introduction therefore factors prominently into \u201cAlien Superstar,\u201d which released on Renaissance<\/em> and credits Holiday.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, given the suit, the allegedly unauthorized usage didn\u2019t sit right with Hirose Enterprises, which claimed to have scooped up the IP in question as part of a 2008 deal.<\/p>\n

But in March 2026, the court acknowledged the defendants\u2019 argument that Hirose had failed to submit written proof of the assignment.<\/p>\n

More pressingly, \u201ca search of Hirose on the Florida Secretary of State demonstrates that Hirose was formed on August 6, 2025\u2014seventeen years after the alleged 2008 copyright assignment,\u201d the appropriate order reads.<\/p>\n

Additionally, \u201c[t]he dissolution of Soundmen effectively renders Soundmen\u2019s inability to hold intellectual property rights as the entity no longer existed,\u201d per the March decision, which also spelled out that \u201cHirose, a non-existent entity at the relevant period, could not have obtained a copyright assignment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back to the present, those determinations set the stage for Judge Scarsi\u2019s dismissal without prejudice on jurisdictional grounds \u2013 a dismissal that materialized \u201cbefore reaching any of the parties\u2019 merits arguments.\u201d<\/h4>\n

As such, we\u2019re technically without a concrete answer as to whether the allegedly unauthorized use constitutes infringement. However, we do know that the filing company, having \u201csignaled over a month ago that it would move to join Hirose Enterprise LLC and Shuji Hirose as plaintiffs,\u201d still \u201chas not done so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout a properly noticed motion by Plaintiff or the proposed new parties, the Court is left with a defective pleading and no party with standing to prosecute the asserted claim,\u201d Judge Scarsi noted.<\/p>\n

Though the defendants were looking to toss the complaint with prejudice, the court, as mentioned, dismissed without prejudice \u2013 meaning the suit can be refiled down the line.<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Lawanda Roberie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Raph_PH A federal court has tossed an infringement lawsuit filed against Sony Music, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Parkwood Entertainment, and others over an allegedly unauthorized sample in 2022\u2019s \u201cAlien Superstar.\u201d Judge Mark Scarsi just recently dismissed the copyright and breach of contract complaint for lack of standing. And as is so often the case in rights-related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":916650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1602,1798,442],"tags":[13702,6406],"class_list":["post-916649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-beyonces","category-entertainment","category-music","tag-beyonces","tag-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}