Tupac Murder Trial, Biggie Estate Ruling, Ellie Goulding Lawsuit & More Top Music Law News

In this week's Legal Beat newsletter, a long-delayed Tupac trial, a decision on Biggie's catalog, an explosive lawsuit from Ellie Goulding and much more. A press conference in September 2023 on the indictment of Duane "Keffe D" Davis for the murder of Tupac Shakur. Ethan Miller/Getty Images Trending on Billboard THE BIG STORY: Nearly three decades after Tupac Shakur was killed in 1996, a jury trial is finally underway to hold someone responsible for one of the music’s most infamous crimes. The Las Vegas drive-by shooting that killed Tupac has long been one of the country’s great unsolved mysteries. But Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested in September 2023 and charged with first-degree murder over allegations that he orchestrated the attack. Related When the trial got started on Monday, it didn’t disappoint. Notorious B.I.G. and Sean “Diddy” Combs were quickly name-dropped. Prosecutors played secret recordings of Davis discussing the shooting. And they repeatedly cited a tell-all memoir in which he bragged about his role in the attack — telling jurors they would hear damning evidence “from Duane Davis himself.” Keffe’s defense attorney, as expected, argued back that the book had been nothing more than “fiction” designed to sell books and couldn’t be corroborated with real evidence. At one point during, lawyer Michael W. Sanft loaded a PowerPoint screen that read simply “Bulls-t.” “Keffe D was known to do this,” the attorney told the jurors, pointing to the card. “What you’re going to find is that the state cannot prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt the claim that Keffe had anything to do with a first-degree murder.” For a full recap of Monday’s opening statements, go read our entire story here. To get up to speed on the backstory of the case, go read our in-depth explainer here. And stick with Billboard for more updates on the Tupac murder trial as it plays out over the next few weeks. You’re reading The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, subscribe here. Related Other top stories this week … -Notorious B.I.G.’s former manager Wayne Barrow won a key ruling in a legal battle with the rapper’s widow Faith Evans over revenue from the sale of the late hip-hop legend’s lucrative music portfolio. –Ellie Goulding filed an explosive lawsuit in UK court alleging that her ex-managers at TaP Management never disclosed that Live Nation held a controlling stake in their firm. -Round Hill Music sued Suno and Anthropic over accusations that the AI labs stole thousands of songs to train their models — and might owe more than $1 billion in damages. And Round Hill doesn’t want to settle. -Four siblings who say they were abused by Michael Jackson hit a roadblock in their child sex trafficking lawsuit when a judge ruled the case must be handled in private arbitration. -A federal judge ruled Megan Thee Stallion and Roc Nation must face trial in a lawsuit filed by a former cameraman who says he was forced to watch the rapper have sex in a car. –Selena Gomez was sued for fraud by investors in her troubled mental health startup Wondermind. Her attorney vowed to fight accusations he called “completely meritless.” –Chris Brown moved to overturn a $13 million jury verdict won by an ex-housekeeper mauled by his dog, with his lawyers arguing it was fueled by improper mentions of his infamous 2008 assault of Rihanna. -Elsewhere in celebrity-dog-attack litigation, Ne-Yo was hit with a new lawsuit claiming his “vicious and dangerous” dog attacked a woman delivering a package at his Atlanta home. –Ronald Isley and the estate of Rudolph Isley reached a settlement to end a lawsuit they’ve fought since 2023 over the trademark rights to their iconic “The Isley Brothers” band name. -A judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Downtown Music that claimed it dropped a YouTube licensing partner as a “sacrifice” to help win approval of its UMG merger. -A judge ruled the Kennedy Center must reimburse jazz musician Chuck Redd for a failed lawsuit over his decision to pull out of a concert after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the building. –Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner won a ruling allowing them to continue suing Ray J for defamation over his bizarre statements claiming that the mother-daughter duo were facing a criminal RICO investigation. -Sean “Diddy” Combs is countersuing Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, claiming the producer stole documentary footage and sold it to Netflix for 50 Cent’s series on the mogul’s downfall. -Merlin tapped Jon Glass, a longtime digital legal executive at Warner Music Group, as its new general counsel, after Neil Miller departed in January for a legal role at YouTube Music. -Latin superstar Romeo Santos sued his longtime accounting and business management firm, claiming in his lawsuit that its “gross negligence” left him with unpaid tax bills and cost him millions. -A man who suffered a traumatic brain injury during a fight at a Luke Bryan concert reached a settlement to end a lawsuit claiming Live Nation didn’t do enough to protect fans at the “rowdy” show. -The owner of the Peanuts theme song and other Charlie Brown music settled a series of lawsuits it filed earlier this year over uncleared social media uses of Vince Guaraldi’s iconic jazz tracks. 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