Culture Press has been convicted again, at the Paris regional court on 18 February, this time in favour of Jimmy Cliff (€32,000), Dillinger (€26,000), Dennis Alcapone (€1,000) and the musician Boris Gardiner (€1,000), not counting reimbursement of legal costs (€7,000 each).
At the heart of the case was the unauthorised exploitation of recordings made between 1964 and 1985 and released on several albums and compilations. Piracy, pure and simple. EMI France was also in the dock and will have to pay €6,000 for three songs marketed on compilations.
The penalty could have been heavier: it is up to the producer, not the exploiters, to prove that he is indeed the owner of the recordings and in good standing with the artists. A comfortable position: legally, EMI was perfectly entitled to exploit the Culture Press catalogue, but morally, it is hard to believe that the label was unaware of how more than dubious this reviled catalogue was.
In 2005 we reported in our columns (see article of 20/04/2005) on the legal proceedings brought against Culture Press by Max Romeo, Winston McAnuff and Niney Holness. The French label, run by the former Trojan chairman Enzo Hamilton, had been ordered to pay more than €75,000 in back royalties on records sold without the permission of the artists and producers.