Back in August, Toni Basil—the accomplished choreographer who is still best known for her 1981 hit “Mickey”—filed a massive lawsuit against Disney, Viacom, the people behind South Park, and clothing retail chain Forever 21 for unauthorized use of her song. Basil believed that a company called Razor And Tie Direct had been licensing the use of “Mickey” even though it did not have the rights to do so, with the stress and frustration of that causing her to “become withdrawn, despondent, and physically ill.”
Unfortunately for Basil, Deadline says that a federal court has dismissed the suit for now, with a judge saying Basil “alleges no well-pleaded facts that would support a claim that is not preempted by the Copyright Act.” The suit can still be pursued on a state level, provided Basil can “cure the deficiencies” in her case, but she only has until the end of this month to file an amended complaint if she wants to keep it going.
The whole thing is weirdly complex for a legal dispute surrounding the song “Mickey,” but the basic idea here is that the court has temporarily dismissed Basil’s attempts to take on everybody who has ever used her song without her explicit approval.