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Lydon loses legal battle over Pistols’ music

Sex Pistols singer John Lydon has lost a legal battle with two of his former bandmates over the use of songs in a television documentary directed by Danny Boyle, according to the BBC.

London-born Lydon — whose parents were from Galway and Cork— had tried to block the Pistols’ back catalogue from being used in a six-part TV series scheduled for broadcast next year on a Disney-owned channel.

The band’s former drummer Paul Cook, and former guitarist Steve Jones, had then sued Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten. The pair had argued that the group had an agreement that such decisions could be taken only on a "majority-rule basis".

Contract ‘valid and active’

Lydon had said that the band member agreement (BMA) had never been adhered to, and that requests for licences had previously been subject to individual members' vetoes.

The BBC reported, however, that a London High Court judge ruled today (23 August) that the contract was valid and active, and that the majority of the band could overrule any individual member's veto.

The judge, Sir Anthony Mann, also noted that Mr Lydon "had actually signed away his power to control the use of music rights" to publishing and music companies such as Warner Chappell Music and BMG.

Lydon retained "only qualified rights of approval which could be overridden if he was being unreasonable", the judge said.