A federal judge has sided with Cher yet again, issuing a final judgment in the singer’s four-year royalties war with Sonny Bono’s widow that grants Cher almost everything she sought, including potentially substantial legal costs. Mary Bono, the head of her late husband’s estate, plans to appeal, her lawyer tells Rolling Stone.
In his final judgment signed Nov. 26, U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt formally lodged his prior ruling that found Mary was barred from using the federal Copyright Act to reclaim the 50 percent share of Sonny’s composition royalties granted to Cher in her 1978 divorce agreement with Sonny. Mary had tried to terminate those rights — for hit songs including “I Got You Babe” and “The Beat Goes On” — along with Cher’s 50 percent share of the musical recordings she made with Sonny. The judge said California contract law, which governed the divorce agreement, trumped the copyright termination power of the federal Copyright Act.
The judge then moved into new territory, holding that Cher retains her right to have her composition and record royalties paid directly to her, even though she sold the rights to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group in 2022. As Rolling Stone previously reported, Mary wanted to deal directly with Iconic and route the payments through the estate, without Cher involved. In his final judgment, Judge Kronstadt included language, sought by Cher, stating that Cher’s right to collect remained intact, along with her approval rights regarding “any and all third-party contracts with respect to the musical compositions.”
And while Mary had asked that neither party be allowed to recover legal costs, the judge ruled Cher will be awarded costs as the prevailing party on all but one claim in the case. Mary may recover costs on the one claim she won, involving her authority to select the estate’s royalties administrator. But Cher won language clarifying her right to object to a proposed administrator. The judge wrote that Cher could object based on “the reasonableness of the administration fee and as to the administrator’s credentials and qualifications.”
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Cher’s lawyer did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment. Mary’s lawyer vowed to appeal.
“Each side prevailed on certain issues. We appreciate Judge Kronstadt’s efforts in the case, but believe he got the law wrong on copyright terminations,” Mary’s lawyer, Daniel Schacht, tells Rolling Stone. “It is important that authors and their heirs have the rights that Congress intended.”
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Cher, 79, rose to fame alongside Sonny Bono in the 1960s before building a decades-long solo career that brought her Grammy, Oscar, and Emmy wins. Sonny died in a skiing accident in 1998, leaving Mary in charge of his estate. His music publishing grants became eligible for termination beginning in 2018, prompting Mary to notify publishers of her intent to reclaim certain interests.
While Cher and Mary will have the right to seek attorney’s fees as part of their recoupable legal costs, it’s not clear how far Judge Kronstadt might be willing to go. He previously declined to award attorney fees after a jury found that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams’ song “Blurred Lines” infringed on the copyright for Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give It Up.”
