Sony Music has reportedly ended their partnership with Dr. Luke, whose real name is Lukasz Gottwald, amid his ongoing legal battle with singer Kesha, The Hollywood Reporter reports.
“Lukasz Gottwald is no longer the CEO of Kemosabe Records and does not have authority to act on its behalf,” a new court filing made by Sony’s legal team states.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dr. Luke’s page on the Sony Music site has also been removed.
READ MORE: Dr. Luke responds to shocking emails showing he criticized Kesha’s weight loss plan
Sony and Dr. Luke established Kemosabe Records in 2011, after he gained fame for producing songs such as Kelly Clarkson’s Since U Been Gone and Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl.
The deal with Sony gave Dr. Luke creative control in return for exclusive rights to his services as a producer.
In October 2014, Kesha came forward to accuse Dr. Luke of once forcing her to take a date-rape drug and then proceeding to take advantage of her in a hotel room.
She also claimed that he had exerted “suffocating control” over her life for a decade, and bombarded her with insults about her looks while denying her meaningful profits from her work.
READ MORE: Kesha dismisses Dr. Luke lawsuit in California, keeps pursuing New York case
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Dr. Luke fired back with a defamation lawsuit of his own, in which he alleged the singer’s attempt to extradite herself from record and publishing contracts as extortion.
A social media “Free Kesha” campaign went viral and raised the profile of Kesha’s claims significantly.
Fans of the pop star were calling on Sony to cut ties with the producer she accused of raping her. About 35 Kesha fans gathered outside Sony’s Manhattan headquarters in March 2016, and said they were there to deliver petitions with over 411,000 signatures demanding that Sony release Kesha from her contract and drop the producer.
The pop star lost her bid to be freed from her contract by a New York judge who rejected her attempt to an injunction so that she could work away from Dr. Luke.
In April 2016, Kesha’s claims that the producer violated human rights and hate crime laws by drugging, sexually abusing and emotionally tormenting her were dismissed, with a judge saying that rape isn’t necessarily an act of gender hatred.
READ MORE: Kesha won’t sing at Billboard Awards after Dr. Luke rescinds OK
Kesha has said she can’t work with a “monster” whom she accuses of raping her a decade ago after giving her a pill that knocked her out. She also said he bullied her to lose weight until she was so traumatized that she developed an eating disorder and spent two months in a rehabilitation clinic in 2014.
Dr. Luke said she’s fabricating accusations to sully him in hopes of getting out of her five-album contract.
Kesha dismissed a California lawsuit in August 2016. The dismissal of the Los Angeles case came amid an effort by the singer to get new singles and an album released despite her high-profile fight with her former mentor.
Her attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, said the dismissal was filed so she can focus her legal efforts in New York, where she has also sued the producer alleging he frequently ridiculed her for nearly a decade.
Petrocelli said Kesha has delivered 28 new songs to Dr. Luke’s record label and Sony Music Entertainment, and hopes new singles and albums will be released soon. “We have conveyed to Sony and the label, Kesha’s strong desire to release her next album and single as soon as possible,” Petrocelli wrote in a statement.
READ MORE: Judge nixes singer Kesha’s sexual abuse claims vs. producer
Kesha is still appealing two rulings in New York that prevented her from breaking her contract with Dr. Luke’s label, and that dismissed her claims of sexual and emotional abuse.
“If Kesha is voluntarily dismissing her claims in the California case, it is because she has no chance of winning them,” Dr. Luke’s attorney, Christine Lepera, wrote in a statement. “Kesha never should have brought her false and meritless claims against Dr. Luke in any court.”
Last week, Kesha filed a notice of appeal on a nixed bid to impose California’s seven-year limit on personal service contracts, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This marks the third pending appeal in this Kesha-Dr. Luke dispute before a New York appeals court.
In February, Kesha’s legal team released body-shaming emails written by Gottwald in 2012 to Kesha’s manager.
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