Salt-N-Pepa could win their appeal and still not get back Push It — and UMG’s new brief explains exactly why that’s possible.
Salt-N-Pepa can’t even stream their own music in the United States right now, and UMG just filed a brief explaining exactly why they think it will stay that way.
That’s the part of UMG’s new appellate brief, buried inside 52 pages of court documents that AllHipHop reviewed in full.
The label filed its response Tuesday, urging the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold January’s dismissal of the duo’s lawsuit, and the secondary argument they made tells you more about how this fight could end than anything else in the filing.
UMG’s primary position hasn’t changed: Salt-N-Pepa can’t exercise copyright termination rights because they never executed a copyright grant in the first place.
Their producer, Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor’s company, Noise In The Attic Productions, signed the 1986 deal and transferred the rights to Next Plateau Records.
Because Cheryl James and Sandra Denton weren’t parties to that transfer, UMG argues that Section 203 of the Copyright Act simply doesn’t give them a termination right at all.
The duo signed an inducement letter attached to the deal, and their lawyers have argued that the letter constitutes a direct grant of rights, but UMG’s brief states it flat out “does not contain or refer to any grant of copyright rights.”
The derivative works argument is where things get really uncomfortable for Salt-N-Pepa’s side.
A significant number of the recordings covered by their termination notice are remixes, including the version of “Push It” that UMG’s own brief describes as a “global phenomenon” and the duo’s first platinum single.
Under federal copyright law, a derivative work prepared under an authorized grant can continue to be used even after a termination, and UMG says those remixed recordings fall squarely into that category.
Salt-N-Pepa’s lawyers tried to fight this in their March appellate brief, arguing that the remixes aren’t original enough to qualify as independently copyrightable works but UMG’s response called that out hard.
The label pointed out that the duo used vague “information and belief” pleading without ever actually alleging that the remixes don’t alter the sounds of the originals, and that, under the Copyright Act, altering sounds is all it takes for a remix to qualify.
This matters because the remixed “Push It” is the recording that moves the most money.
The duo’s full catalog was pulling in roughly $1 million in synchronization license revenue alone in just five months before they filed suit, and their early albums still can’t be streamed anywhere in the United States.
UMG is simultaneously part of a label coalition that literally bought a disputed copyright for the sole purpose of getting a separate termination rights case in front of the Supreme Court, which tells you exactly how seriously they’re treating this legal moment across the board.
Salt-N-Pepa brought in “Blurred Lines” attorney Richard Busch to lead the appeal and picked up amicus support from Irving Azoff’s Music Artists Coalition and the National Society of Entertainment and Arts Lawyers. They can still file a reply brief before oral arguments are scheduled.
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