This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Artist News Business News Legal Management & Funding
Sacha Robotti goes legal after ex-management redirects website to porn
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 6 June 2018
Dance music artist Sacha Robotti is suing his former management in a dispute over his official website domain.
He accuses management agency TSG of holding him to ransom over control of the domain, which until recently was seemingly pointed towards a porn site rather than his official website. It is currently pointing to music released by another TSG-managed act, Mr Kristopher.
According to Courthouse News, Robotti parted ways with TSG – his management team of three years – late last year. In his lawsuit, he alleges that TSG said they were owed $3800 – and then later $4900 – in unpaid commission.
The management firm registered the domain name sacharobotti.com a year before it actually started working with him, and still controls the address. In an email, the company allegedly told Robotti that it would keep hold of the domain until all commissions had been paid and a three year ‘sunset clause’ in his contact had been honoured.
Sunset clauses allow managers to continue charging commissions to artists even after they have stopped actively working with them.
Robotti, who disputes that any commissions are owed, says that his managers then redirected his domain to a porn site called lemonparty.com.
The name of the site references an old ‘bait and switch’ prank on various online forums where people would claim to be linking to one thing and then send linkers to lemonparty.org, which contained a single sexually explicit photo. A bit like Rickrolling, but less likely to result in anyone winning an MTV award.
The porn linking was still happening when Robotti filed his lawsuit. His legal filing states: “Consumers and fans searching for information about plaintiff and his musical works, which likely include minors, are thus re-directed to a website containing obscene and lascivious videos and photographs”.
Needles to say, Robotti wants control of his domain. For its part, TSG is yet to respond to its former client’s allegations and lawsuit.
