Martin Shkreli — the guy who paid $2 million for a Wu-Tang album — has now been dropped from a copyright lawsuit, according to a report by the NY Post.
This week a Manhattan Judge decided that all claims brought forward by the New York artist Koza against Shkreli be dropped ‘without prejudice’. Peter Scoolidge, Koza’s lawyer, emailed a statement saying…
“We learned new information late last week, which led us to conclude that any outcome with the other parties in the case would also resolve our claims against Mr. Shkreli… However if that turns out to be incorrect, we will re-file the claims against him.”
The claim is borderline ridiculous, and probably frivolous. The battle started after the Wu-Tang Clan concocted the plan to create one single copy of their album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, and sell it off the highest bidder. Shkreli was the highest bidder, and parted with $2 million for the album.
That’s when a lot of problems started, including this lawsuit. Along with the 31-track album, a 174-page book outlining the background of each of the songs was included. But, it wasn’t long before the content of the book was found to contain infringing content from a New York artist named Koza. Koza ultimately found some of his Wu-Tang Clan artwork in the book, even though he never gave permission for that specific use.
Koza subsequently filed a lawsuit against Shkreli, Paddle8 (the auction company used to sell the album), and Wu-Tang Clan affiliated music producer, Tarik “Cilvaringz” Azzougarh.
Since, Martin Shkreli and Koza have been battling it out in court over this lawsuit. Now, the latest news is that Shkreli has now been dropped from the suit entirely.