Imagine giving up a good portion of your life to train for one goal – to represent the United States in the Olympics. Team USA figure skaters Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier spent countless hours in rinks, perfecting their routine to perform on a world stage in the Beijing Winter Olympics. All they wanted was to win a medal and have the world know who they were.
Well, they accomplished part of that. No medal to take back from China, but they do have a lawsuit they can look over on the long flight home.
The music group, Heavy Young Heathens, made up of brothers Robert and Aron Marderosian, have filed suit against the skaters, along with NBC and U.S. Figure Skating. Why? Because their song “House of the Rising Sun” was used for their routine. And they were never asked permission to use it.
Here’s part of the suit.
“These violations cause great harm to the value of (the Marderosians) command for such a well-known piece of their recording catalog and insults the integrity of their professional reputation. While Knierim/Frazier, USFS, NBC, USA, Peacock are all profiting from the revenue the 2022 Winter Olympics generate, (the Marderosians) have been and continue to be deprived of what their creation ‘House of the Rising Sun’ earns them per license.”
The lawsuit must have gotten the attention of NBC since they removed posts of the performance.
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