{"id":327001,"date":"2025-12-03T00:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T00:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/327001\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T00:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T00:14:07","slug":"cher-wins-near-complete-victory-in-royalties-war-mary-bono-to-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/327001\/","title":{"rendered":"Cher Wins Near-Complete\u00a0Victory in Royalties War, Mary Bono to Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA federal judge has sided with Cher<\/a> yet again, issuing a final judgment in the singer\u2019s four-year royalties war<\/a> with Sonny Bono\u2019s widow that grants Cher almost everything she sought, including potentially substantial legal costs. Mary Bono<\/a>, the head of her late husband\u2019s estate, plans to appeal, her lawyer tells Rolling Stone.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his final judgment signed Nov. 26, U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt formally lodged his prior ruling that found Mary was barred from using the federal Copyright Act to reclaim the 50 percent share of Sonny\u2019s composition royalties granted to Cher in her 1978 divorce agreement with Sonny. Mary had tried to terminate those rights \u2014 for hit songs including \u201cI Got You Babe\u201d and \u201cThe Beat Goes On\u201d \u2014 along with Cher\u2019s 50 percent share of the musical recordings she made with Sonny. The judge said California contract law, which governed the divorce agreement, trumped the copyright termination power of the federal Copyright Act.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe judge then moved into new territory, holding that Cher retains her right to have her composition and record royalties paid directly to her, even though she sold the rights to Irving Azoff\u2019s Iconic Artists Group in 2022. As Rolling Stone previously reported<\/a>, Mary wanted to deal directly with Iconic and route the payments through the estate, without Cher involved. In his final judgment, Judge Kronstadt included language, sought by Cher, stating that Cher\u2019s right to collect remained intact, along with her approval rights regarding \u201cany and all third-party contracts with respect to the musical compositions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd while Mary had asked that neither party be allowed to recover legal costs, the judge ruled Cher will be awarded costs as the prevailing party on all but one claim in the case. Mary may recover costs on the one claim she won, involving her authority to select the estate\u2019s royalties administrator. But Cher won language clarifying her right to object to a proposed administrator. The judge wrote that Cher could object based on \u201cthe reasonableness of the administration fee and as to the administrator\u2019s credentials and qualifications.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tCher\u2019s lawyer did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone\u2018s request for comment. Mary\u2019s lawyer vowed to appeal.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEach side prevailed on certain issues. We appreciate Judge Kronstadt\u2019s efforts in the case, but believe he got the law wrong on copyright terminations,\u201d Mary\u2019s lawyer, Daniel Schacht, tells Rolling Stone. \u201cIt is important that authors and their heirs have the rights that Congress intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tCher, 79, rose to fame alongside Sonny Bono in the 1960s before building a decades-long solo career that brought her Grammy, Oscar, and Emmy wins. Sonny died in a skiing accident in 1998, leaving Mary in charge of his estate. His music publishing grants became eligible for termination beginning in 2018, prompting Mary to notify publishers of her intent to reclaim certain interests.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Cher and Mary will have the right to seek attorney\u2019s fees as part of their recoupable legal costs, it\u2019s not clear how far Judge Kronstadt might be willing to go. He previously declined to award attorney fees after a jury found that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams\u2019 song \u201cBlurred Lines\u201d infringed on the copyright for Marvin Gaye\u2019s 1977 song \u201cGot to Give It Up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge has sided with Cher yet again, issuing a final judgment in the singer\u2019s four-year royalties…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[53671,2160,28037,88,166420,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-327001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-cher","9":"tag-controversy","10":"tag-courts-and-crime","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-mary-bono","13":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}