The commercial judge number 3 of Madrid has forced the descendants of the musician José Torregrosa to return 100% of the income received by way of copyright of 37 songs by Francisco Sánchez Gómez, known as Paco de Lucía, to the relatives of the flamenco master by acknowledging his sole authorship.
This is stated in a sentence, to which Europa Press had access, in which the lawsuit filed by the musician's children and his widow against the descendants of Torregrosa is upheld. The musician's heirs continued to collect 50% of the rights for the composer transferring the pieces to sheet music.
In the legal grounds, the judge concludes that "the only author of the works is Paco de Lucía and that none of them can be considered derivative works, in the sense of recognizing the arranger intellectual property rights over them."
Likewise, it indicates that "there has indeed been a public attribution of co-authorship through the covers", for which reason it considers that "non-material damage is considered proven".
After analyzing the lawsuit, the judge determines that Paco de Lucía is the sole author of 37 works, including Entre dos aguas, Gitanos Trianeros, El Tajo, Jerezana, Llanto a Cádiz, Punta Umbría, Recuerdo a Patiño, Viva la Unión , In La Caleta, Llora la Seguiriya, April in Seville, Al Conquero, Que viene el Coco, El Vito, Fuente Nueva, Plazuela, Rumba Improvised, Serranía de Málaga and Temas del Pueblo.
The ruling also declares that José Torregrosa Alcaraz violated the teacher's moral right of authorship by attributing co-authorship of the previous works, and, consequently, ordered the defendant to pay the plaintiff as compensation for non-material damage, of the amount of ten thousand euros.
It also prohibits the defendant from making any mention of José Torregrosa Alcaraz as co-author of the aforementioned works, as well as condemning it to cease any exploitation it may be carrying out of them.
And it ordered the defendant to repay the plaintiff the amounts that have been received by virtue of the exploitation of the aforementioned musical works, and said amount must be set in execution of the judgment in attention to the certification provided for this purpose by the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE).
