Gossip

Mobile ringtone dispute between Marley and Verizon: it gets worse...

Marley and Verizon are in dispute over copyright deals. That has a familiar ring tone! Or - to put it another way - spot the cliche? The facts of the case are agreed, and both the Observer and the New York Times have them straight:

Universal Music owns the rights to some of the biggest songs Marley recorded with his band, including 'Buffalo Soldier' and 'I Shot the Sheriff'. But the estate of Bob Marley and his living family members objected strongly to the deal, claiming that Verizon and Universal Music had gone ahead without any agreement with them. In response, Verizon said it did not want to create any friction and took the 44-song catalogue down from its site to give the Marley family time to make its peace with Universal. But rather than go quietly, the family put out a statement saying it had forced Verizon to take down the songs. Verizon responded to that statement by immediately putting all the ringtones back up on its website.

Thus the latest news (from the Observer). But what about the quips? Back on September 14, the New York Times wrote: Marley Family's Vitriol Leads Verizon to Bite Back and dug into the editorial memory of Marley's reggae lyrics:

The licensing dispute between the estate of the reggae singer Bob Marley and the Universal Music Group took an ugly turn yesterday, with nobody getting together or feeling the least bit all right.

And this last weekend, the Observer wrote: Marley family rise up against ringtones deal and illustrated it as follows:

If reggae star Bob Marley were alive today he would surely tell his family, Universal Music Group and American mobile phones group Verizon Wireless that they should just 'get together and feel all right'.

You feel OK about that?