Judge to Weep Over Reggaeton Copyright Ruling: Bad Bunny, Drake, and 150 Artists Await Decision in Steely & Clevie Case
A federal judge in Los Angeles has told lawyers for Bad Bunny, Drake, Karol G and roughly 150 other reggaeton artists that he will need several weeks to decide whether to reconsider his July ruling that a jury must determine whether an estimated 1,800 reggaeton songs infringed the composition copyright for a 1989 track called "Fish Market." Rolling Stone
U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. presided over the hearing on Thursday, 14 August 2026, in a case that casts a legal net over a vast swath of one of the world's most commercially dominant genres. The plaintiffs are Cleveland "Clevie" Browne and the estate of the late Wycliffe "Steely" Johnson — the Jamaican production duo known as Steely & Clevie — who filed the complaint in 2021 through their company, Steely & Clevie Productions Ltd., and The Estate of Wycliffe Johnson. The suit is formally captioned Cleveland Constantine Browne v. Rodney Sebastian Clark Donalds and carries docket number 2:21-cv-02840 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. CourtListener
At the centre of the dispute is a single percussion pattern. The plaintiffs claim that "Fish Market," a 1989 recording by Steely & Clevie, was the original source of reggaeton's dembow rhythm — the syncopated, repeating beat that became the genre's signature. The allegedly protectable musical elements at issue are referred to in the case as the "Fish Market Elements." A composition copyright, the kind at stake here, protects the underlying written musical work rather than any specific recorded performance of it. Rolling Stone
Bad Bunny's legal team, led by lawyer Kenneth Freundlich, filed the motion asking Judge Birotte to reconsider his July ruling. Lawyers for the other artists later joined the request, arguing that the court rather than a jury should decide the copyright questions. The defendants include Bad Bunny — legally Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio — and his label Rimas Music, LLC, along with Drake, identified in the docket as Drake Graham, and many others. Rolling Stone; CourtListener
The case has a notable complication. Steely & Clevie do not own the composition copyright for the song "Pounder," only the copyright to its sound recording — the specific recorded version. The composition copyright for "Pounder" belongs to Jamaican producer Dennis "the Menace" Halliburton, who is not a party to the lawsuit. That gap matters because the plaintiffs' claims rest on the idea that the "Fish Market" composition is the protected source, not just a particular recording of it. Rolling Stone
Lawyers Benjamin Tookey and Stephen M. Doniger represent the plaintiffs. Rolling Stone
The scope is what makes this case unusual. Copyright disputes over individual songs are common in the music industry; disputes claiming that a single composition underpins an entire genre's rhythmic foundation are not. If a jury finds that the "Fish Market Elements" were copied across 1,800 tracks, the financial exposure for the defendants and their labels would be substantial, and the ruling could reshape how reggaeton producers approach one of the genre's most fundamental building blocks.
For now, the lawyers and their clients wait. Judge Birotte gave no indication of which way he was leaning, only that his decision on whether to reconsider would take weeks rather than days.
