Musician Wins Battle in Rights Dispute

Tom Waits won another battle in his long-running war in state and federal courts to keep his songs and likeness out of commercials. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that Third Story Music, the singer’s former music publisher, does not have the right to sell his songs to foreign advertisers. In a previous case, Waits sued Frito-Lay and Tracy-Locke because they used a Waits imitator in radio ads for Doritos. In that case, a federal jury awarded Waits nearly $2.5 million.