KISS members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley declare their copyright of basic live performance footage has been infringed on by events claiming to personal varied bootleg performances from 1974 to 1977, in response to a lawsuit filed in federal court docket.
Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS have filed a lawsuit in federal court docket this week because the collective homeowners of the KISS catalog, alleging their copyright was infringed on by Applause Licensing and Curt Gooch, who declare possession of the copyrights to sure efficiency footage from 1974 to 1977.
Stanley and Simmons say they by no means licensed Applause or Gooch to make use of the footage, and search declaratory judgement as to their copyright, in addition to reimbursement from the defendants for his or her authorized charges.
Collectively, Simmons and Stanley personal Kiss Catalog, Ltd., which owns the rights to the KISS IP, and serves because the successor “to the pursuits that former KISS band members Paul ‘Ace’ Frehley and Peter Criss had within the filmed footage,” to which the lawsuit pertains. It’s unknown if Applause or Gooch declare to have obtained prior authorization from Criss or Frehley to make use of the footage.
In response to the submitting, Applause Licensing is a restricted legal responsibility firm primarily based in Tampa, Florida. Curt Gooch is the founder and co-owner of Applause, and lives in Oklahoma. Alongside Applause and Gooch, the lawsuit lists as defendants 20 folks known as (John) Does 1 by way of 20: unknown people who “have been concerned in and/or participated in and/or profited from the infringing exercise,” probably workers at Applause Licensing.
The lawsuit comes a few week after the band was hit with an unrelated wrongful loss of life lawsuit from the band’s guitar tech’s widow, suing them over the band’s allegedly lax COVID security protocols that led to her husband’s loss of life.
Fran Stueber, who served as Paul Stanley’s guitar tech for many years, handed away whereas quarantining in 2021 after contracting COVID in the course of the band’s Finish of the Highway World Tour. His widow, Catherine, together with a number of members of her household, are suing Simmons, Stanley, longtime supervisor Doc McGhee, Reside Nation, and the lodge chain Marriott Worldwide, claiming negligence and wrongful loss of life.
A Rolling Stone investigation performed almost two years in the past particulars claims from a number of people on the KISS Finish of the Highway Tour who describe lax COVID security protocols, together with a scarcity of testing and a number of other crew members who fell ailing with the virus earlier than Stueber’s loss of life.