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U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said in federal court
in Manhattan on Tuesday that new evidence presented by two Sony
Corp units, the defendants in the case, have caused him to "lose
trust" in the trial testimony.
He ordered Sony and Mayimba Music, owner of the rights to the
song "Loca con su Tiguere," composed by Ramon Arias Vasquez, to
appear for a seven-day hearing in August on what Sony says is
proof a cassette tape at the center of the copyright accusations
was fabricated.
Since several of Sony's new witnesses might have trouble
obtaining visas to travel to the United States from the
Dominican Republic, Hellerstein offered to hold the hearing in
Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, and asked the attorneys to find
out whether that would solve the visa issues.
Mayimba sued Sony in 2012. Last August, Hellerstein ruled that
Shakira's single and another artist's song illegally copied from
Arias' work and found Sony/ATV Latin and Sony/ATV Discos liable
for distributing the infringing songs.
In his August ruling, Hellerstein found that Arias's song was
recorded onto a cassette tape in 1998. A copy of the song on the
tape was registered at the Copyright Office in 2011.
In the past few months, however, Sony submitted evidence that
the tape was a fabrication made in 2011, and that Arias lied
under oath about it, Hellerstein said in an April 30 order.
The defendants also submitted affidavits that purport to show
that the underlying music to Arias's song was composed in 2009
by a different artist, the judge said.
If credible, he added,the evidence would show that the plaintiff
"attempted to commit a fraud upon this court, going so far as to
fabricate evidence and to commit perjury."
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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