By James Caldwell, PWTorch columnist

A 1990's rap music group M.O.P. is suing John Cena and WWE over copyright infringement violations related to John Cena's entrance theme music, "The Time is Now." The M.O.P. group members, who are identified in a federal lawsuit as Jamal Grinnage, Eric Murray, and Daryl Pittman, believe they are entitled to royalty payments and related damages.

Named in the lawsuit as defendants are WWE, Stephanie McMahon Publishing, Inc., John Cena, individually, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Cena can be held liable individually because he is an independent contractor and not an employee of WWE. He is labeled in the lawsuit as a "professional wrestler" for WWE and "co-writer of the Infringing Work."

The lawsuit centers on M.O.P.'s "Ante Up" song, which became a mainstream hit in 2000. The group believes Cena used a portion of the lyrics for his "The Time is Now" song without receiving the proper permission grants for M.O.P.'s trademarked work.

WWE claims they received proper signatures to authorize the use of the lyrics in Cena's song, but M.O.P. claims a receptionist at Next Level Groove, which was representing M.O.P. in 2005, did not have proper authorization to approve Cena and WWE's use.

M.O.P. is seeking minimum damages of $150,000 for royalty payments related to WWE's use of Cena's track on PPVs, TV, CD releases, and Internet downloads through Sony BMG and Stephanie McMahon's music corporation. The group is also seeking additional damages of "not less than $750 nor more than $30,000" for each instance of the illegal use of the track.

Timeline of Events

- December 2004: An attorney representing WWE sent a fax to BMBM, which has control over M.O.P.'s musical compositions, requesting use of the lyrics in Cena's track. BMBM replied that it would not grant permission for Cena to use the lyrics.

- March 2005: The same attorney representing WWE faxed the request to Next Level Grooves Music seeking clearance. The receptionist, Tyrone Smith, signed the request. Next Level claims he was not authorized to sign.

- April 2005: Cena and WWE used the lyrics when recording "The Time is Now" theme song.

- June 2008: M.O.P., through BMBM, sent an email to Sony Music and WWE's attorney stating they would not grant Cena use of the track.

- August 26, 2008: BMBM sent a letter to WWE's attorney, Sony, and Next Level indicating they had not granted permission for Cena to use a portion of their "Ante Up" track. They wrote: "The sample was never cleared by us, nor were we ever contacted regarding clearance. Next Level Grooves... owns no share of Blind Man Bluff's share of 'Ante Up.'" They threatened a copyright infringement lawsuit within ten days if a response was not given.

- September 3, 2008: WWE's attorney replied that WWE would handle the matter going forward.

- September 11, 2008: After receiving another letter from BMBM on Sept. 4, WWE's attorney replied: "Contrary to your assertions of your (September 4, 2008) Letter, Cena properly licensed the publishing rights to the Ante Up sample from your co-publisher, Next Level."

Caldwell's Analysis: There is a major "if" involved in this case. If a federal judge does not throw out the case based on the statute of limitations expiring due to a three-and-a-half year gap between M.O.P.'s initial rejection of the copyright request and any subsequent follow-up, then WWE and Cena have a considerable amount of fact against them.

WWE has yet to become involved in the back-and-forth despite their attorney saying WWE would handle matters going forward in the Sept. 3 letter. Eight days later, the attorney replied to BMBM with a canned response that Cena received proper authorization.

Again, the statute of limitations will be key if this case ever reaches a federal judge and is not settled out of court, but $150,000 to WWE would be a mere drop in the bucket. The additional punitive damages could run pretty high, though, if a judge looks at how often Cena's music has been played, how many times it's been downloaded, how many CD sales WWE made from its latest CD, etc. If John Cena is forced to pay individually a portion of the $150,000 or the variable cost of each download, record sale, and TV play, it could really cut into his income that he's worked hard to build up by spending countless days on the road representing WWE.

FYI: TMZ published the initial report on the lawsuit, including a .pdf document with the lawsuit. TMZ's report can be found here

M.O.P. is a rap music group that has a new record coming out in 2009. They were previously associated with hip-hop artist 50 Cent, however, M.O.P. and 50 Cent are now working on separate projects under the G-Unit label.

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