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Cart30 Seconds to Mars Responds to $30 Million Lawsuit
Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:34:16
Virgin Records filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against 30 Seconds to Mars on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing an alleged breach of contract and seeking damages "in excess of $30,000,000." Frontman Jared Leto has already responded to the allegations, calling them "insane" and saying he hopes for "a resolution to this in as civil and kind a way as possible."
In a posting on the band's official forum, Leto explained, "We had been signed to our record contract for nine years. Basically, under California law, where we live and signed our deal, one cannot be bound to a contract for more than seven years. This is widely known by all the record companies and has been for years. In fact, so aware of it are they that they desperately try to make deals outside of California whenever possible. It is a law that protects people from lengthy, unfair, career-spanning contracts. This law also gave us the legal right to explore other possible opportunities.
He continued, "Yes we have been sued by EMI. But NOT for failing to deliver music or for 'quitting.' We have been sued by the corporation quite simply because roughly 45 days ago we exercised our legal right to terminate our old, out of date contract, which, according to the law is null and void. We terminated for a number of reasons, which we won't go into here (we'd rather not air any dirty laundry) but basically our representatives could not get EMI to agree to make a fair and reasonable deal."
Leto went on to say that the band is currently working on a follow-up to their 2006 LP, A Beautiful Lie, in Los Angeles, which would have been the third of a promised five albums for Virgin/EMI.
A spokeswoman for EMI issued her own statement for the company, saying, "EMI's relationship with 30STM has been extremely rewarding and successful for both the band and the company. The hard work of EMI's global team and of the band has resulted in sales of three million albums and singles, multiple awards and a growing, global fan base.
However, we have been forced to take procedural, legal steps in order to protect EMI's investment and rights during contract renegotiations initiated by the band and management. We hope to resolve these matters amicably and put them behind us so we can continue working in partnership with the band to take them to even greater levels of success."
—The ARTISTdirect Staff
08.18.08
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