A federal judge has sided with Bad Bunny in a closely watched copyright dispute over the dembow rhythm, a foundational element of reggaeton. Judge André Birotte Jr. found that the plaintiffs could not point to a single copyrighted composition of their own that combined the specific elements they accused the defendants of copying.
The ruling deals a blow to attempts to claim ownership over the genre’s underlying rhythmic building blocks, a legal theory that had raised concerns across the reggaeton and Latin music community about the precedent it might set for future infringement claims.
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