A British court dismissed Tuesday a legal challenge to rock legend Bruce Springsteen's earlier victory concerning ownership of copyright of his early songs.
The Court of Appeal ruled out a claim by Masquerade Music and its owner, Ronald Winter, that the High Court judge who granted an injunction banning it from releasing an album of songs written and recorded at the start of Springsteen's career allowed inadmissible evidence and applied the wrong standard of proof.
The three judges refused permission to take the case to the House of Lords, Britain's highest court of law, after deciding that the High Court's ruling could not be challenged.
Springsteen, who had already been awarded 500,000 pounds (800,000 Euros, 720,000 US dollars) legal costs by the High Court, was also granted the costs of the appeal.
The ban on London-based Masquerade was imposed in December 1998 and Springsteen was also told he was entitled to damages, to be assessed, for breach of copyright.
Masquerade imported 75 allegedly unauthorized copies of a compact disc, entitled "Before the Fame," in 1997, featuring 19 songs he wrote between 1972 and 1974.
The High Court was told in the earlier hearing that the company "threatened to release many further copies."
Springsteen's lawyers argued that the recordings had never been legitimately released and were that Masquerade's attempt to claim ownership of the copyright was an attack on his artistic integrity -- AFP
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
