The estate of legendary reggae star Bob Marley is engaged in a fierce struggle with the Universal Music Group over the rights to his work: Last month, Universal signed a deal with Verizon Wireless to allow the company to become the exclusive distributor for ringtones featuring the work of Tuff Gong (Marley's nickname -- just demonstrating that I'm a big fan). Marley's family threatened to sue but then Verizon took most of the Marley ringtones of its site.
But then a spokesman for the family issued a vitriolic statement and, in an act of retaliation better suited to a playground than a boardroom, Verizon put the ringtones back up on the site.
According to a Verizon Spokesman, "We had earlier this week decided to take the content down temporarily to give the Marley estate and Universal time to work out their differences. Now, in light of that statement, we'll be putting that content back up tomorrow."
So now the Marley's say the lawsuit is back on. In one of his classic songs, Marley asked "Is this love - is this love - is this love - Is this love that I'm feelin'?"
Not much love going on between Marley and his estate right now.



Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-15-2007 @ 12:10AM
Chris said...
I don't understand why big corps like Verizon can't be more respectful and honor the wishes of Mr. Marley's family? It's not like they need to use those ringtones to be successful. Personally, it turns my stomach to hear a classic song used in an advertisement, or other ways, like ringtones to make money for a company that is already worth millions. I would really like to see Verizon show some class and respect the family's wishes. I mean it's extremely doubtful that they would lose any customers just because the Bob Marley ringtones were no longer available. On the other hand, this is exactly the type of thing that would turn me against using a company's services. For Verizon to make the ringtones available again just because of some statement written by an angry representative of the Marley camp is just childish and inexcusable in my opinion. It's nothing more than a case of a huge corporation using it's wealth and power to bully someone that doesn't have the resources to effectively fight back, and it's simply disgraceful!
9-15-2007 @ 12:09AM
dr mitchel w eisenstein, said...
Universal and Verizon suck so bad it isnt even funny. I will never buy a verizon product ever. In fact i just got rid of verizon and went with the optimum triple play which beats the pants off of lame verizon with its phoney FIOS bogus cable access. and their wireless service was terrigle also as i use ATT and Cingular.
The point is what goes around comes around, and Bob Marley was one of the most spiritual singer songwriters ever.
Universal and Verizon want to rip off this saint in the same way the Romans wanted to rip off Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
Satan in the flesh is embodied in the actions of Verizon and Universal, in taking the work of a peacemaker, and putting it up for sale.
9-15-2007 @ 2:48AM
EC said...
I think Bob's music should be shared by everyone, always. He was fantastic, and still is. Bunny Wailer, as well as the rest of the family involved should obviously be compensated for whatever was agreed to by their legal staff. But let Bob be heard, always.
9-15-2007 @ 11:32AM
Daniel Mullane said...
I'M AMAZED THAT A RINGTONE DISPUTE CAN CALL INTO PLAY OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST, THE ROMANS AND SATAN. WHAT ABOUT THE INVISIBLE, PINK UNICORN. THESE CHARACTERS ARE ALL MAKE-BELIEVE. THERE IS NO GOD !
9-15-2007 @ 12:17PM
Ida said...
Verizon is messing with the wrong one. I was at a Marley tribute walking thru the vender court when I heard a lot of yelling in patois. Rita Marley was removing T-Shirts with Bob's image from a vendors table saying she didn't authorize the sale of these items and that they would be destroyed.
Needless to say, She was vexed beyond belief.
She doesn't play that. The vendor was miserable the rest of the day.