A federal judge has provided Bob Marley's family a sweet redemption song by ruling that a Nevada company stole the likeness of the reggae legend to make and sell clothing and toys.
Now the Marley estate will
get $300,000 in damages from the company, Avela, and its owner Leo Valencia.
The Marley estate might make even more money from this judgment. Once U.S. District Judge Philip Pro finds out how much profit Avela made from using Marley's likeness, he could award the family additional damages.
The decision is clearly a victory for Marley's heirs, who have seen the image of the reggae music king attached to virtually every product you can imagine.
In September, Marley's heirs lost a major copyright case against record producers that gave Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group control over five classic Marley albums -- 'Catch a Fire,' 'Burnin,' 'Natty Dread,' 'Rastaman Vibrations' and 'Exodus.'
The copyright value of the albums has been estimated in the tens of millions of dollars.
It's a little sad that a man who created some of the most important music ever is being reduced to commodity -- the subject of an ongoing tug-of-war between his family and people trying to make money off his genius.
I hope that every story written about this situation attracts a few curious people to listen to the masterful music making of Bob Marley and the original Wailers, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer.
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