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Ditto settles Opulous dispute with Lil Yachty

By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 13 April 2023

Ditto Music has settled a legal dispute with Lil Yachty which related to the promotion of Opulous, the music NFT start-up and sister company to the DIY distributor.

The rapper – real name Miles McCollum – went legal in January last year via the courts in California, claiming that Opulous had used his name and brand as part of its launch communications in 2021, even though he had never agreed to get involved in the new venture.

Ditto was also named as a defendant – as was Ditto and Opulous founder Lee Parsons – on the basis that they had both posted about those launch communications on their respective social media channels.

McCollum’s lawsuit conceded that he and his management team had met with Parsons to discuss Opulous, which encourages fans to invest in new music in return for a royalty right linked to any tracks they support, all secured via NFTs on the blockchain.

However, said lawsuit insisted, they never agreed to work with the NFT start-up, or for Lil Yachty’s name to be linked to it in formal communications.

In a media statement responding to the lawsuit, Opulous insisted that it had, in fact, secured the necessary approvals before linking Lil Yachty to its NFTs platform. However, it was Ditto and Parsons that formally responded through the courts.

They both tried to get the case dismissed on jurisdiction grounds, arguing that Ditto is a UK-based company and Parsons is a British citizen with no formal connections to California.

However, the judge ruled that Ditto – with US addresses on its website, employees recruited in the US and American events promoted on its social media – fell under the jurisdiction of the Californian courts. As did Parsons, because he had been personally involved in the meetings with McCollum to discuss Opulous.

This meant that the legal battle was set to proceed. But no more. It seems both Ditto and Parsons have now reached an out of court settlement with McCollum and his team.

A short filing with the court earlier this week states: “Defendants Ditto Ltd [trading as] Ditto Music and Lee James Parsons submit this notice of settlement to notify the court that the above-entitled matter has been settled. The parties request 45 days to confirm the settlement in writing and file a dismissal of the action”.

The legal filing doesn’t mention Opulous itself. When Ditto and Parsons formally responded to the lawsuit last year we were told that the Opulous company – being formally based in Singapore – had yet to be served with any legal papers in relation to the litigation.