AssetID: 53803019
Headline: UNCAPTIONED: Cher wins lawsuit over Sonny Bono's widow
Caption: Cher wins lawsuit over Sonny Bono's widow. The singing superstar's case against Mary Bono finally ended in a ruling in her favour. The decision over royalties to I Got You Babe and other hits came after a federal judge ruled that Mary Bono must continue paying the singer her 50 per cent cut under the former couple's decades-old divorce settlement. More than 20 years after Sonny's death, Mary argued she no longer needed to pay royalties to Cher thanks to copyright law's so-called termination right. It’s a provision that allows songwriters and their heirs to win back control of their intellectual property rights decades after they gave them away. But in a decision issued this week, the judge ruled that these rules do not trump Sonny and Cher's 1978 divorce settlement which gave the singer a permanent 50 per cent cut of the publishing revenue from songs written before the couple split up. The ruling means Cher will continue to receive publishing royalties for her catalogue of songs created with Sonny, including The Beat Goes On and Baby Don't Go. According to Wednesday's ruling, more than $400,000 in royalties owed to Cher have been amassed since the dispute began. Sonny and Cher started performing together in 1964 and married in 1967. The pair split in 1974, finalising their divorce with a settlement in 1978. Under that deal, Sonny retained ownership of their music rights, but Cher was granted a half-share of all publishing royalties in perpetuity. Bono died in a skiing accident in 1998. THIS VIDEO MUST NOT BE EDITED FOR LENGTH TO COMBINE WITH OTHER CONTENT
Keywords: Cher,Sonny Bono,Mary Bono,Music royalties,I Got You Babe,The Beat Goes On,Baby Don't Go,Federal court ruling,Divorce settlement,Copyright law,Termination right,Publishing revenue,1978 divorce,Skiing accident,Celebrity legal battles
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