Verizon vs. Bob Marley’s Family

The situation: Verizon Wireless sells lots of Bob Marley-related items on its website, ranging from ringtones to graphics. Saying the media was “unauthorized”, the Bob Marley family threatened to sue Verizon AND Universal Music Group, parent company of the singer’s music label. Verizon backed down, and removed the offending files from the site.

End of story. Right?

Nope! In a surprise move, Verizon decided to reinstate all the Bob Marley ringtones, ringbacks, and pictures. Naturally, the Bob Marley Family is rather pissed about it.

Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records and advisor to the Marley Family Estate said the company will proceed with legal action.

“We are filing the lawsuit because they went back on their word,” he said in a statement. “Verizon said they would take it down and they did. Now they say they are putting it back up, we are filing 100 percent”

Meanwhile, Universal Music Group responded by releasing Bob Marley ringtones to all the phone carriers.

I love it!

Verizon says to reinstate Bob Marley ringtones - Reuters

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 15th, 2007 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Wireless Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.