No Rock And Roll Fun

BAD NEWS, BANDS: YOUR ASSES REALLY ARE THE LABEL'S: There's an interesting side issue that's developed out of the ongoing litigation following the death of Aaliyah in that plane crash, and one that's got some interesting implications for the whole of the music industry. Blackground Records have just convinced a Manhattan judge that Aaliyah was an "asset" and not an "employee" of the label, which is a piece of legal footwork that's freed them up to sue the video production company, Instinct Productions, for negligence in her death. Now, it doesn't take no Perry Mason to see that this has just shifted the whole relationship between recording artists and their record labels, and not much in the favour of the artists, either - could this pave the way for, say, a label suing an artist for developing a drug problem for being careless of their assets?