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Dash's lawsuit claims that in 2005, he created a musical track titled "Tony Gunz Beat." The lawsuit alleges that Mayweather, in his Wrestlemania 24 bout against The Big Show in March 2008, using theme music titled "Yep" and later used the song on a Raw broadcast.
Dash's lawsuit claimed the track, "is music that includes Plaintiff's Tony Gunz Beat track, with lyrics added to the track." The lawsuit later refers to the words as "explicit lyrics" added by the defendants. The lawsuit filing does not attempt to explain how Dash's work may have be misappropriated and turned into the theme music, but Dash claims he owns the filed copyright on the original music.
In their most recent Motion in the case on 4/15, WWE reiterated their claims that they initially planned to play a 50 Cent song for Mayweather's entrance but the night before the PPV, Mayweather’s manager, Leonard Ellerbe gave WWE’s Vice President, Music, Neil Lawi a CD of the contested song and requested the company play that instead. Mayweather's reps claimed he owned the rights to the music and gave WWE express permission to reproduce it in conjunction with the Wrestlemania release.
WWE noted that Mayweather confirmed this during statements made during the legal process and that Lawi has already stated on record that the company was not aware of any copyright issues until well after the event took place as Dash did not file any claims until after
In his suit, Dash claimed that the defendants have made "millions of dollars" from his copyrighted work and requested an accounting of "all gains, profits and advantages from their act of infringement". Dash's suit alleged that despite numerous cease and desist orders sent to Mayweather, the usage of the track has continued via online videos and DVD sales.
Dash is asking for $150,000 per copyrighted work infringed as well as preliminary and permanent injunctive relief to stop the Defendant's "ongoing infringement of Plaintiff's copyright." The suit also calls for any and all copies of the Plaintiff's works be destroyed "or otherwise appropriately disposed of."
In their latest filing, WWE responded, citing that Dash is demanding records of the entire revenue made from the PPV, claiming lost revenue. The company commented, "Dash’s lost profit damages claim, and related discovery demands for massive financial discovery from WWE, are particularly unreasonable given Dash’s admission that he has never generated any revenue ever through commercial exploitation" of his song.
Claiming that Dash is trying to "generate a windfall" through the lawsuit, WWE disputed that Dash should be requesting records on the gross revenue for Wrestlemania, especially since he has yet to build a connection between WWE's alleged infringement and potential lost revenue. Basically, WWE is claiming that Dash is fishing for everything he can grab instead of making a case for the issues at hand and requesting records based on those claims. They have asked the court to prohibit Dash from attempting discovery beyond areas that were pursuant to the case at hand.
WWE has asked for Dash to provide claims of WWE revenue related to actually playing the song. They noted that despite repeated requests by WWE for Dash to clarify, he instead responded that he was expressing "his “belief†that he is entitled to direct and indirect profits while providing absolutely no factual basis for that belief."
Dash's lawyers are seeking revenue details on advertising revenue, PPV sales, DVD sales, parking, building concessions, merchandise sales and ticket revenue for both Wrestlemania and the Raw in question. In response, WWE broke down that since the song was never used prior to Wrestlemania and that the public had no advance notice that the song would be used at the PPV, therefore no one would have purchased the show based on usage of the song.
WWE also noted that since the title of the song was not advertised on the Wrestlemania DVD, nor was it used on any advertising or Mayweather-related WWE merchandise, that no one could have purchased any of those items due to a connection to the song. WWE claimed that Dash would not have any legal claim to revenue related to Wrestlemania. WWE repeated those claims in regard to the song being used on an episode of Raw and an episode of ECW following the Wrestlemania PPV.
WWE is also demanding that Dash respond to their requests that he state damages and respond to Discovery attempts, as opposed to claiming it was too "premature."
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