Stewart

ORDER RE: MOTIONS TO DISMISS

Re: Dkt. No. 9,

Plaintiff Stephanie Ford ■ Stewart (“Plaintiff’) alleges that Defendants wrongfully withheld publishing royalties to the song “Daydream Believer,” which Plaintiffs late husband, John Stewart (“Stewart”), wrote. The claims arise out of a 1967 songwriter’s agreement between Stewart and Screen Gems-EMI Music, Inc. (“Screen Gems-EMI”). 1 The agreement is a “net receipts” arrangement, which means that the publisher is only obligated to remit to the songwriter a certain percentage of the revenue the publisher actually receives after deducting any applicable fees and costs, in contrast to an “at source” agreement, which requires the publisher to remit to the songwriter a certain percentage of all revenue garnered from the territory even before deducting fees and costs. The crux of Plaintiffs claims is that Defendants are taking advantage of the “net receipts” arrangement to Plaintiffs detriment.

To that end, Plaintiff contends that Defendants have been deducting from the song’s foreign receipts fees Screen Gems-EMI paid to affiliated foreign sub-publishers that are alter egos of Screen Gems-EMI and operate with Screen Gems-EMI as part of…