A judge orders the descendants of a collaborator of Paco de Lucía to return the copyright of ‘Entre dos aguas’ and 36 other songs | Culture

A ruling from a commercial court in Madrid obliges the descendants of the composer José Torregrosa to return 100% of the income received from the copyright of 37 songs by Paco de Lucía to the relatives of the flamenco maestro by acknowledging his sole authority, after his sons and his widow filed a lawsuit against the Torregrosa family, who collaborated with Paco de Lucía writing the scores for his pieces, for which he received 50% of the royalties as arranger and co-author. After the death of Torregrosa, the descendants have continued to receive the same percentage. EL PAÍS has contacted their lawyer and, for the moment, they refuse to make statements.

In the legal grounds, the judge concludes that “the sole 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’s intellectual property rights over them.” In addition, he points out that “there has indeed been a public attribution of co-authorship through the covers”, for which he considers that “non-material damage is considered proven”.

After analyzing the lawsuit, the judge has determined that Paco de Lucía is the sole author of 37 works, including Between two watersGypsies from Triana, El Tajo, Jerezana, Llanto a Cádiz, Punta Umbría, I remember Patiño, Long live the Union, In the Caleta, Llora la Seguiriya, April in Seville, Al Conquero, The Coconut is coming, El Vito, Fuente Nueva, Plazuela , improvised rumba, Serranía de Málaga and Temas del Pueblo, among others. The ruling also declares that José Torregrosa violated the teacher’s moral copyright by attributing co-authorship of the previous works and, consequently, condemns the defendant to pay 10,000 euros to the descendants of Paco de Lucía as compensation for moral damage.

It also prohibits the defendant from making any mention of José Torregrosa as co-author of the aforementioned works and orders the cessation of any exploitation that he may be carrying out of them. And finally, it orders the heirs to repay the plaintiff the amounts that have been received for the explosion of the aforementioned musical works, an amount that must be certified by the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE).