Bing vs. UMG

BA-DA-BING: Nearly forgotten (by us, anyway) during the course of the long weekend was Friday’s late-breaking news that the company holding Bing Crosby's property rights had been awarded more than $2 million in royalties from UMG. The jury award, covering unpaid CD royalties, actually went down last Wednesday (6/30) in L.A. Superior Court, ending the latest skirmish in a decade-long legal battle. During a three-and-a-half-week trial, attorneys for HLC successfully argued that a most favored nation clause in Crosby's recording contract entitled him to higher CD royalty payments, thugh they failed to convince jurors that Crosby's UMG contract should be terminated, or that HLC should be awarded 1,200 Der Bingle masters dating back to the sides he cut for Decca in the 1930s, Variety reported. This week, Crosby's lawyers are trying to snag the roughly $1 million in downloads, ringtones and mastertones his recordings generated between 2004 and 2009. (7/7a)