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COUNSEL CONCERNS: Federal Judge Scolds Both Sides' Lawyers In Labels/Spinrilla Copyright Dispute

By R. Robin McDonald
November 01, 2018

A federal judge in Atlanta called out attorneys in a nationally watched copyright case for their role in an “an all-out, knock-down, drag-out fight between the '800-pound Gorilla' of the recording industry in one corner of the room vs. 'Spinrilla', the self-proclaimed '800-pound Gorilla of free hiphop mixtapes' in the other corner.”

In a 66-page order, Judge Amy Totenberg of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia alternately scolded a team of attorneys representing the nation's top music recording labels and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and Atlanta-based Spinrilla's counsel for causing the case to degenerate into “all this sound and fury.” Atlantic Recording Corp. v. Spinrilla, 1:2017cv00431.

District Judge Totenberg also decried the “glut of issues slathered on the court by the parties” in a case that she said has become “essentially stalled as a result of the onslaught of motions.”

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