Kanye West was ordered to pay over $52,000 in authorized charges after a decide dominated his crew stalled discovery in a copyright lawsuit over two “Donda” tracks.

Kanye West has simply taken a authorized hit in Los Angeles, the place a federal decide ordered him and his firms to pay $52,015 in lawyer charges tied to a copyright dispute over his album, Donda.

The ruling upheld an earlier determination requiring West to pay authorized prices after his crew refused to cooperate in the course of the discovery part of a lawsuit filed by Artist Revenue Advocates, LLC.

The group claims that West unlawfully used copyrighted material created by DJ Khalil and three other musicians on two tracks, “Moon” and “Hurricane”—from his 2021 album, Donda— without authorization.

Kanye West credited them as songwriters and producers, however he by no means obtained their clearance to make use of the music, which they are saying generated no less than $15 million in income.

West’s and his authorized crew objected to all 65 of their makes an attempt to acquire key paperwork and produced no data in any respect. That led them to ask the court docket to intervene.

A decide agreed with DJ Khalil and his crew, ordering Kanye West’s firms handy over the requested supplies and pay the authorized charges incurred in forcing that end result.

After reviewing billing data, the Justice of the Peace set the quantity at simply over $52,000.

West’s attorneys pushed again, calling the charge “excessive” and arguing that the songwriters used too many senior attorneys at excessive hourly charges. They requested that the court docket scale back the award to $15,000.

The decide wasn’t persuaded and stated the variety of objections from West’s crew justified the time spent by the plaintiff’s attorneys.

The charge order is a part of a broader lawsuit that continues to be energetic in federal court docket. The case, filed in 2023, may decide whether or not West and his firms are answerable for copyright infringement associated to the 2 tracks.

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