Tim McGraw Gets Slapped With Copyright Infringement Suit for the Second Time

"The Cowboy In Me" singer is hit with legal action for allegedly breaching a recording contract with his old label Curb Records

Grown men don't cry, but occasionally they get sued.

Such is the case with Tim McGraw, who's on the receiving end of a lawsuit launched by Curb Records claiming the country crooner and Big Machine Records infringed on its copyright.

In its complaint filed in Nashville, Tenn., Nashville-based label Curb claims it entered into an exclusive recording contract with the 46-year-old McGraw in 1997 and that their option agreement has yet to expire.

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According to court docs, the "Back When" singer initially granted Curb six options to extend the term of the recording agreement for one option period that continued until nine months after delivery to them of materials including masters with consents, approvals and label copy information.

However, the document claims, on May 21, 2012, Big Machine announced it had entered into a recording agreement with McGraw, who recorded 20 tunes for them. In its suit, Curb claims that since all those recordings were made during the terms of its recording agreement with McGraw, due to its options, it subsequently owns the masters for those songs, including those on his 2013 studio album Two Lanes of Freedom.

View the court docs

"McGraw recorded the Undelivered Masters before the expiration of the term of the Recording Agreement because the fifth Option Period Album has yet to be delivered to Curb Records," states the suit. "Curb Records, therefore, owns, exclusively, the Undelivered Masters, and the copyrights therein."

Curb is asking for a court declaration stating the musician is in breach of his recording agreement with them and that they are the rightful owners of the copyright of the "Undelivered Masters" as well as other damages.

The company is also seeking unspecified punitive and compensatory damages as well as the recovery of all the recordings McGraw made with Big Machine.

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This is the second lawsuit Curb has brought against the entertainer.

Per Billboard, in May 2011, the label sued McGraw in state court accusing him of recording his final album with the company too early prior to its delivery "in a transparent tactic to attempt to fulfill his contractual recording commitment to Curb prematurely in breach of the recording agreement."

An attorney for McGraw was unavailable for comment on the latest legal action.

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