A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Dr Dre relating to the DVD release of the hip hop mogul's all-star Up In Smoke tour from back in 2000. The DVD release included a back stage conversation between the tour's producers and three employees from the City Of Detroit - city mayor spokesman Greg Bowens, local police spokeswoman Paula Bridges and former police commander Gary Brown - in which the city officials asked the producers to drop a controversial video that was screened as part of the Up In Smoke show. The video was already "controversial" because local authorities had tried to have it banned under local obscenity laws, but Dre had successfully fought the ban through the courts arguing it breached First Amendment freedom of speech rights.
When the conversation appeared on the DVD release the three officials sued, claiming they were unaware that the conversation had been filmed, and that the inclusion of the conversation on the DVD breached their privacy rights. The officials sued various people, but settled with all but Dre in 2004. The case against the hip hopper continued, and was finally reviewed by Judge John A Murphy last month. Despite earlier indications from Murphy that he thought the case should go to court, in a ruling on 4 Dec - which has been published this week - he changed his mind. He ruled that because the meeting took place in a backstage area where the door was open - and therefore where numerous people could have looked in - the officials could not assume the conversation was "private", and therefore they had no privacy rights that could be breached, even if they weren't aware the conversation was being taped.
After reaching settlements with other defendants in 2004, the lawyer representing the officials, Glen Douglas Oliver, defended their lawsuit against the hip hop star by saying: "Secretly videotape a private conversation with gangster rapper Dr Dre, put it in a gangster rap music video without his permission and see how quickly he sues you". There has been no official new comment from the officials' camp regarding Murphy's ruling, though word has it they plan to appeal.