From Rap Radar:
"Name Game. Rapper Rick Ross was allowed
to keep his alias after successfully defeating former drug lord, Freeway
Rick Ross in a California appeals court. Freeway filed a lawsuit in
2010 claiming infringement on his namesake. According to Judge Roger
Boren however, Rozay was protected under the first amendment.
“We recognize that Roberts’
work — his music and persona as a rap musician — relies to some extent
on plaintiff’s name and persona. Roberts chose to use the name ‘Rick
Ross.’ He raps about trafficking in cocaine and brags about his wealth.
These were ‘raw materials’ from which Roberts’ music career was
synthesized. But these are not the ‘very sum and substance’ of Roberts’
work.”
“Roberts created a celebrity
identity, using the name Rick Ross, of a cocaine kingpin turned rapper.
He was not simply an impostor seeking to profit solely off the name and
reputation of Rick Ross. Rather, he made music out of fictional tales of
dealing drugs and other exploits—some of which related to plaintiff.
Using the name and certain details of an infamous criminal’s life as
basic elements, he created original artistic work. "
source
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