A Los Angeles federal judge said Friday that he will take several weeks to decide whether to reconsider a major copyright ruling affecting Bad Bunny, Drake and many other reggaeton artists, according to Rolling Stone.
The dispute centers on claims from reggae duo Steely & Clevie that their 1989 song “Fish Market” helped create the dembow rhythm associated with reggaeton. In a July ruling, U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. said a jury must decide whether an estimated 1,800 songs by more than 100 artists copied protected parts of that composition.
Bad Bunny’s legal team asked the judge to revisit that decision, and lawyers for other artists later joined in. They argued that the musical elements the court treated as potentially protectable were actually assembled from different songs, not a single work.
During Friday’s hearing, Birotte pressed both sides on how the disputed two-bar pattern could be said to exist in “Fish Market.” The plaintiffs argued that the pattern appears in the composition and is repeated in different places, while the defense said that testimony from Clevie Browne under oath supports their view that the pattern was taken from separate portions of the song.
By the end of the hearing, the judge said he needed more time to think about the matter and indicated that an order could take a few weeks. Bad Bunny’s motion asked the court either to reverse the July ruling or to let the defendants appeal immediately.
