Controversial record label Ambitiouz Entertainment may face further embarrassment after music duo Blaq Diamond successfully interdicted them and YouTube from removing their music on the video sharing site and other digital platforms on Monday.
After seeing victory at the Johannesburg High court, the duo’s lawyer Jade Naidoo indicated that she is also assisting the record label’s Lesotho born hitmaker Malome Vector in a similar legal case against Ambitiouz Entertainment.
The record label was exposed by a number of their former musicians including Malome Vector, Fifi Cooper, Intaba Yase Dubai, and Blaq Diamond of being exploitive and frustrating them after leaving the label by removing their music from streaming sites and claiming copyright of their songs.
Blaq Diamond, which is made up of Siphelele Dunywa and Ndumiso Mdletshe, filed an urgent court application at the court in October last year after the record label removed their hit song featuring Big Zulu from YouTube claiming copyright of the song.
The court judgment, which was handed down on Monday states: “having read the papers filed on record, heard counsel and considered the matter, the following order is made; pending final determination of Part B attached to this application, any person or entity acting in concert with the respondents, are hereby interdicted from removing and or deleting the account of the applicants’ YouTube channel.
“That it be ordered that the second respondent be interdicted from raising any copyright/ownership dispute against works of the applicants with any other digital streaming platform (DSP) inclusive of the first respondent, Spotify, iTunes, Deezer, authored by the applicants from June 15 2022, pending final determination of Part B.”
Naidoo said the order was a big win for the group and for all other independent artists who have been exploited.
She said: “this is an industry game changer. This is for all musicians being exploited by record labels.” Ambitiouz Entertainment was also ordered to pay the costs of the legal case.
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