\n\tTHE BIG STORY:<\/strong> After five weeks of trial in a Manhattan federal courtroom, the blockbuster antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation finally went to the jury, which must now wade through the massive case to decide if the concert giant broke the law.<\/p>\n \n\tAt closing arguments<\/a>, an attorney for dozens of states called Live Nation a \u201cmonopolistic bully\u201d that had run roughshod over the live music industry and hurt fans. The company\u2019s attorney said it was instead a \u201cfierce competitor\u201d that had played fair and succeeded simply by outperforming its rivals.<\/p>\n \n\tWhich of those narratives will the jury believe? For now, the better question might be: How long will it take them to pick one?<\/p>\n \n\tDeliberations started Friday (April 10), and it\u2019s anybody\u2019s guess how long they\u2019ll go. Antitrust cases are often tried as bench trials<\/em> that are decided by a judge; handling such a case via jury trial<\/em> is relatively rare. That\u2019s because they are immensely complicated disputes involving economic theories and legal complexity that are difficult for regular people to understand. Does your neighbor know how to define a \u201crelevant antitrust market\u201d?<\/p>\n \n\tThese jurors are tasked with weighing weeks of testimony and reams of documents to reach such determinations, including competing academic analyses of the economics of live music. They\u2019re staring at a verdict sheet that is many pages long, featuring multi-part questions that read like logic games on the LSAT.<\/p>\n \n\tFor context, when the government tried a similar case against Google over the dominance of its search engine, the two-month bench trial wrapped up in November 2023. The judge \u2014 a legal expert aided by a team of clerks \u2014 did not issue his ruling until August 2024.<\/p>\n \n\tThe jury won\u2019t deliberate for nine months, or anything close to it. But they are dealing with an almost impossibly detailed case and, if they really want to understand it, they could be there for a while. Or they could give up, just go with their guts and issue a verdict today.<\/p>\n \n\tYou\u2019re reading The Legal Beat<\/a>, a weekly newsletter about music law from <\/em>Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, subscribe here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0Attorneys for Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs<\/a> and federal prosecutors battled at an appeals court<\/a> as he sought to overturn his 50-month sentence, with judges grilling both sides over \u201cexceptionally difficult\u201d legal questions about how much time the star deserved.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0A real-life showgirl who sued Taylor Swift<\/a> for trademark infringement over The Life of a Showgirl<\/em> asked a judge<\/a> for a nationwide injunction barring Swift from selling merch tied to her record-smashing album while the case plays out in court \u2014 an extraordinary request that\u2019s unlikely be granted.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0Roc Nation\u2019s insurance company filed a lawsuit<\/a> to prove that it doesn\u2019t need to pay for CEO Desiree Perez<\/strong>\u2019s ongoing lawsuit with her daughter, arguing that it has nothing to do with her corporate role at the helm of Jay-Z<\/a>\u2018s company.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0The two attorneys who won a landmark ruling for songwriter Cyril Vetter on copyright termination sat down for a Q&A with Billboard<\/em><\/a> \u2014 talking about the case, their client and a potential battle at the Supreme Court: \u201cI like our argument better than I like theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0Social media was filled with fake news that Justin Bieber\u2019s Coachella\u00a0set was mostly new songs because his big catalog sale prevented him from playing his old tracks. That\u2019s not how copyright law works<\/a>, and people close to the deal told Billboard<\/em> it\u2019s obviously \u201cnonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0The Prince <\/a>estate reached a settlement<\/a> with singer Apollonia<\/a>, ending their dispute over who owns legal rights to the name made famous by the movie Purple Rain<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0Bruce Springsteen<\/a>\u2018s merch provider filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking counterfeit sales<\/a> during the Land of Hopes and Dreams American Tour \u2014 starting with the Boss\u2019 hometown show in New Jersey.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0Pooh Shiesty<\/a> was denied release on bail<\/a> after his bombshell arrest for allegedly barricading Gucci Mane<\/a> in a Dallas recording studio and forcing the 1017 Records boss to sign a label deal release at gunpoint.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0Los Angeles prosecutors charged a 55-year-old woman<\/a> named Michelle Dick with multiple felonies for allegedly stalking Lindsey Buckingham<\/a> before assaulting the Fleetwood Mac<\/a> singer in a recent attack.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0Irving Azoff<\/strong>\u2019s Music Artists Coalition (MAC) threw its support<\/a> behind Salt-N-Pepa<\/a> (Cheryl \u201cSalt\u201d James and Sandra \u201cPepa\u201d Denton) in their legal battle to win back control of their masters from Universal Music Group.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0A Taylor Swift fan can\u2019t bring a class action<\/a> against StubHub after her $14,000 Eras Tour tickets were voided on the day of the concert, a judge said, because she signed an arbitration agreement.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0StubHub agreed to pay $10 million<\/a> to resolve accusations from the Federal Trade Commission that the ticket platform intentionally ignored new \u201cjunk fee\u201d rules for the first few days they were in effect.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0Lil Baby<\/a>\u2019s hemp company sued a joint venture partner<\/a> for allegedly tarnishing the rapper\u2019s reputation by shipping illegal, contaminated cannabis products across the country.<\/p>\n \n\t\u2014\u00a0Maryland passed legislation to restrict when prosecutors can cite rap lyrics<\/a> as criminal evidence against the artists who wrote them, becoming the third state to rein in the controversial practice.<\/p>\n\n\t\tOther top stories this week\u2026\t<\/h3>\n
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