From the MCRFB news archive: 1971
Rare Earth Group and Rare Earth Holdings Files Suit In Oakland County Circuit Court
NEW YORK — Rare Earth — the Detroit based rock group, and the Rare Earth Corp., have become the first performing group to initiate direct court proceedings against suspected tape pirates.
In an unprecedented move, the group and its corporation have filed the first piracy suit recorded in the State of Michigan, and have named, among the defendants, the first blank tape manufacturer, to be cited in a piracy action.
The suit, filed in the Oakland County Circuit Court, names the Lear Jet Corp., Muntz Stereo City, Pan American Distributing Co., Universal Tape Outlet, Stereo City and Harmony House as defendants and claims $1,000,000 in damages.
It seeks to enjoin The Lear Jet Corp. from supplying blank tape cartridges to The Pan American Distributing Co., alleging that by the knowledge of the purposes for which the blank tapes were ordered, Lear Jet “did cause severe financial loss” to Rare Earth.
The suit also seeks to enjoin the other defendants from reproducing and selling all material included in Rare Earth’s albums, “Get Ready” and “Ecology.”
Rare Earth contends that in addition to the contractual violations intrinsic in such a suit, the pirated tapes were “detrimental to the group’s professionalism,” in that “the quality and sound in the defendants product, including stereo 8 reproductions of the selections made from the group’s performances done exclusively for the Rare Earth label, distort the instrumentation and voicing of the group’s renditions, to the detriment of the musical aggregation known as The Rare Earth.”
The group is seeking an injunction under four counts of Michigan law, including MCLA 445,801, making it unlawful to “advertise and disseminate to the public, statements leading the public to believe that the product sold was first class, when they were, in fact, unauthorized reproductions.”
A request for the impounding, of all copies of the tapes still in the possession of the defendants named in the suit, was filed pending the hearing and determination of the action.
The action was filed by Rare Earth’s attorney, Henry Baskin of Cooper, Baskin & Feldstein, and, according to Ron Strasner, the group’s manager, other defendants will be added to the suit as they become known. END
(Information and news source: Billboard; June 12, 1971)
