{"id":4512,"date":"2014-07-24T05:38:28","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T05:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2014\/07\/24\/former-asia-singer-claims-his-creative-contributions-were-copyrighted-and-that-his-rights-assignment-was-executed-under-duress\/"},"modified":"2014-07-24T05:38:28","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T05:38:28","slug":"former-asia-singer-claims-his-creative-contributions-were-copyrighted-and-that-his-rights-assignment-was-executed-under-duress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2014\/07\/24\/former-asia-singer-claims-his-creative-contributions-were-copyrighted-and-that-his-rights-assignment-was-executed-under-duress\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Asia singer, claims his creative contributions were copyrighted and that his rights assignment was executed under duress"},"content":{"rendered":"


After being fired from the Las Vegas musical Raiding the Rock Vault, co-director John Payne has fired off an expansive lawsuit that claims breach of contract, copyright violations and slander. Payne was a lead singer in the British prog rock group Asia from 1992 to 2006. Along with Grammy-winning record producer David Kershenbaum, Payne helped develop the format behind Raiding the Rock Vault, which plays at the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino and takes audiences on a musical journey from 1948 to 1989. The show features members of some well-known bands and songs from The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin and other acts. <\/p>\n

In May, Payne was suspended and the following month he was terminated. Now, in a lawsuit against Rock Vault Tours, the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino and its new owner Westgate Resorts that’s somewhat reminiscent of Julie Taymor’s suit after being let go from Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Payne is asserting that the show can’t simply go on without properly compensating him for his contributions.<\/p>\n

According to the suit, which has now been removed to Nevada federal court, Payne and Rock Vault Tours entered into an agreement that provided the plaintiff, as co-writer, with 2.5 percent of net box-office receipts until costs were recouped and then 3.5 percent thereafter. Payne also got royalties as a co-director: 2 percent of net profits until recoupment and then bumped up to 3 percent.<\/p>\n

Payne’s challenge in the lawsuit might be overcoming an agreement assigning his ownership interest and royalties.<\/p>\n

He says he was told last May that he assign rights or be fired. He signed “under duress,” he says. “Accordingly, the agreement was not supported by adequate consideration.”<\/p>\n

He’s now alleging that the defendants breached a performance agreement to pay him $1,000 for each Raiding the Rock Vault show (besides being co-writer and co-director, Payne was a bassist and a vocalist in the show) and breached the royalties agreement.<\/p>\n

He’s asserting copyright infringement, pointing to the show’s format being registered with the Copyright Office as “Dramatic Work and Music; or Choreography.”<\/p>\n

He’s also suing for slander for unspecified public comments made about his suspension by the defendants.<\/p>\n

And he’s suing for an alleged violation of his publicity rights. Allegedly, the defendants used him to advertise the show even after he was suspended.<\/p>\n

Source: Hollywood Reporter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After being fired from the Las Vegas musical Raiding the Rock Vault, co-director John Payne…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}