MUSIC: PSQUARE: If Indeed, They Break Up - The Legal Angle

Pulse Blogger - 

Legal MattersWho Gets What If P-Square Splits?

Recently, news made the rounds about an imminent break-up of the musical group ‘P Square’. This duo of musical talent had kept heads bumping and bums shaking for nearly a decade. So it came as a big shock to many that they could be thinking of calling it quits. But what came as a bigger shock to me in the whole brouhaha was not the coming to an end of the group itself but the fact that these guys came from the same womb, the same day. I never would have imagined that a bond that strong between these two could be broken by anybody at all.
Well, since that seems to be the case, then so long with ‘P Square’. The issue that now comes to bear would be the dissipation and splitting of anything that is owned by the group as one entity. Physical properties could be easily shared, that is not an issue. Cars would be shared, houses could also be divided amongst them. If any body raises an eyebrow as to the value of what the other is getting then such property could be sold and the money evenly split.
The part that really causes me to pause and think is the issue of the intellectual property. The intellectual property are the works of art the group has churned out since the group came into existence. All the music, videos, image rights etc. What would have sufficed would have been an equal sharing formula but in this situation, the issue of who is the main act or contributor would begin to rear its head. Who has the better voice, who is the better dancer? Where Peter feels his dance moves have been the major attraction in the video and therefore should command a higher ratio. Paul then can bring the argument that its the beauty of his voice that has kept audience glued to their MP3 players.
It would really be interesting to see how this plays out. Computing intellectual property as a group is one very interesting task but in the situation that this split really comes to light, it would be a very big legal task computing and sharing all the profits that would continue to accrue to the group ‘P Square’.
Most definitely, CD tracks would not be taken off the shelves, musical downloads would not cease, adverts and caller tunes would still continue but how this would be shared amongst the duo? Only time will tell.