Report: JIMI HENDRIX' Bandmates Have No Claim To Copyright, Sony Says

The UK arm of Sony has hit back at the estates of the former bandmates of Jimi Hendrix in their ongoing copyright feud over the group's back catalog, alleging that the pair consented to producers taking control, reports Law360.

Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd. told the High Court in a defence on April 4 that the estates of bassist Noel Redding and drummer John "Mitch" Mitchell have failed to prove their claim to the copyrights to the music of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The pair consented to their recordings being commercially released and even "positively required" the producers to exploit the music as best as they could, the newly-public defence says.

Redding and Mitchell "agreed and consented to the fixation of the performances in the recordings, and to the commercial release and exploitation of the recordings," Sony said.

The pair formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience with the Seattle-born guitarist in 1966. The band recorded several albums together and had hits with "Hey Joe," "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cries Mary." All three band members have since died.

Noel Redding Estate Ltd. and Mitch Mitchell Estate Ltd. claim to have succeeded the rights to the recordings that the two musicians owned after they died.

They said that the band members "died in poverty having never received their true entitlement." The estates added that any past deals did not account for the way that streaming services would change the way people listen to music.

The estates told the court that Sony has infringed their copyright by reproducing, broadcasting and exploiting the music by inking licensing deals and selling CDs, DVDs and electronic downloads.

This includes the performers' property rights of Redding and Mitchell. These are the rights of a performer to reproduce and distribute records and to be paid in return. The rights did not exist in U.K. law until long after the group disbanded.

But Sony claims in its defense to have a license from copyright owner Experience Hendrix LLC to exploit, publish and distribute the recordings of the band.

Read the full report at Law360.