Stolen Music IP - need advice
In a nutshell, a guy I once tried to start a band with has taken my rough demos and turned them into songs without crediting me or informing me. It’s happened twice now.
So a few years ago (2022) I auditioned for a band to be lead guitar player, and the singer who recruited me asked for some examples of how I play. I had some rough home demos made on an iPad using GarageBand that I linked to him to give him an idea. All seemed well at first as happens in the honeymoon period of a new band, but members started dropping out because of the singer’s attitude and we never got beyond rehearsing 2 songs, so I thought it was best if I also split from the group. It seemed amicable at the time.
I decided to try to make my music by myself as I made the switch to GarageBand on a MacBook - major step up - with the intention of making a full album of music by myself. It was a target I set and in 2023 I released my first song. What I didn’t know was that the singer had already taken my music and brought it to another group of musicians and re-recorded it and released it without my consent or knowledge. I requested that he remove it but he claimed that it belonged to his band (Pegaso No Vuela) and that since I had been a part of the band that any music I wrote belonged to him. This is not how copyright or rights of intellectual property work and I tried to reason with him but he was adamant he wouldn’t remove it. I then used the Spotify claim forms to take the music down and he responded by sending me a legal notice from a lawyer to say that I was infringing on his rights. He registered the songs that I wrote as his original compositions in his name. I think that’s using a public office for forgery of false documents, no? Anyway I had to LawyerUp and respond and during this time I realised that it wasn’t just the two songs that we tried in the rehearsal room, he had taken my demos from the drive and used them too. Isn’t that blatant theft? My lawyer sent the cease and desist and he ignored it. I thought that was the end of it because he never posted under that name again.
Two nights ago I discovered that he changed his band name (Hadas Sin Alas), or should I say, started a new group, an entity that I have no affiliation with, and is now reusing all the songs that I wrote this time with different song titles so that I can’t search the names I knew. When I listened through his album he has 8 songs out of 11 that I am the composer of and I’m completely uncredited in it. He claims to be sole composer of all music.
Obviously I’ve made Spotify Copyright Infringement claims against him, but what steps should I take next? He ignored my lawyer’s letter before and clearly doesn’t care about the threat of legal action. How can I call him out when I have little to no online presence? I really need help on this so if anyone has advice I would greatly appreciate it.
By the way link to my music is
https://open.spotify.com/artist/56JylLq8iuMWZbmsdmEXFl?si=KYIIoNHnTL-ar3SEZ1jQWQ
Link to his stolen music
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7Gw4rewg7A9puzrVESmffc?si=TAry5E7MTPevsljp_InYzQ
Dead Horse = Parece Que Fue Ayer Signing In = Luz Azul Heartstring = Quieres que te creas?
These are the obvious comparisons. There are more
TLDR: talentless hack steals my music, releases it uncredited without my knowledge or consent then threatens legal action against me, ignores threats of court and does it again under new alias.