A composer who created the title song and musical cues for the hit TV series “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” accused Amazon Studios LLC of playing his copyrighted music without the appropriate licenses, according to a federal lawsuit.
Evolution Film & Tape Inc., which was ultimately acquired by Amazon, agreed to pay Alan Lazar for each musical cue as well as mechanical royalties for the first season of the TV show in 2010, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Central District of California. It separately asked Lazar to create a theme song for the show, but the agreement was never written down, automatically making Lazar the rightful copyright owner, the filing said.
“Defendants have materially violated (and continue to violate) his intellectual property rights by exploiting his Title Theme song without a license since the show’s inception,” the complaint said. “Indeed, as a representative of Evolution recently acknowledged, Mr. Lazar’s only agreement with Defendants is an agreement to create ‘cues’ for the show.”
The defendants also failed to pay Lazar the full amount of what he is owed for the music cues, the complaint said. Evolution continued to work with Lazar for the next ten seasons of the show, but only paid him for the performance royalties owed for his music played through mediums like TV broadcasts, according to the filing. Lazar said he has “never received even a single cent” for foreign broadcast and streaming mechanical royalties.
Lazar’s music is a “fundamental component” of the TV series, “setting the musical tone for both that series and its numerous spin-offs,” the complaint said.
The complaint asserts copyright infringement, breach of contract, and accounting claims.
Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
