LOS ANGELES (CN) - Warner Music subsidiary Rhino Entertainment has cooked up a scheme to defraud bands of their royalty payments, according to a class action filed by James McCarty of Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels. McCarty says Rhino changed its calculation method for past royalties, to claim that the band owes it for decades-old "overpayments."
But McCarty says Rhino's contracts do not allow it to withhold current royalties for past overpayment. McCarty says Rhino is playing the same game with other bands.
McCarty was guitarist for Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, best known for "Devil with a Blue Dress On" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly."
McCarty wants damages, costs, attorney fees, and an injunction to keep Rhino from retroactively withholding royalties.
He is represented in Superior Court by Michael Cohen.
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