An impoverished South African family has launched a legal battle against United States entertainment giant Walt Disney seeking royalties for its use of a song by a popular Zulu composer in The Lion King.
The estate of Solomon Linda, a Zulu migrant worker turned songwriter who in 1939 wrote the tune that became the world hit The Lion Sleeps Tonight, filed a lawsuit last week in the Pretoria High Court seeking $1,6-million in compensation from Disney, lawyer Hanro Friedrich said on Wednesday.
Linda died penniless in 1962, having sold away the rights to the song to a South African publisher. Originally titled Mbube, it went on to generate an estimated $15-million in royalties after it was adapted by other artists, including the American songwriter George Weiss, whose version is featured in Disney’s The Lion King.
The song has been covered by at least 150 artists, including The Tokens, George Michael, Miriam Makeba and The Spinners.
Linda’s three surviving daughters and 10 grandchildren, living in poverty in Soweto, have received only a one-time payment of $15 000 from the current copyright holder, Friedrich said. The daughters decided to seek legal help after realising they had lost out on millions of dollars in royalties.
Their lawyers are bringing a challenge on the basis of law in force in Commonwealth nations at the time the song was first recorded. Under its provisions, the rights to a song revert to the composer’s heirs 25 years after his death.
Friedrich said they were preparing to seek a court injunction to shut down the long-running London stage production of The Lion King as part of a broader legal offensive that could include lawsuits in other Commonwealth countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria and Canada.
”We have not yet made a decision about filing in the US,” said Friedrich. ”This is going to take a while… We are prepared for a protracted litigation.”
Disney denied liability in a statement released on Tuesday. The Africa manager for Burbank, California-based Disney, Christine Service, said on Wednesday she was not aware of a bid to shut down the London stage production of The Lion King, which has been running since 1999. – Sapa-AP