Blackstar

Only Fernando for the act of sexual harassment. GN'R and the touring entity for not having protocols and not taking preventive measures against sexual harassment at the workplace.

Axl probably wouldn't get rid of Fernando completely, but I don't think he would have a problem to remove him from management and demote him to a lower position on the side. The real problem is who would replace him, because I doubt that Axl would want to go back to having a manager from the industry. So it would have to be someone else from inside. Beta has retired from being manager and Vanessa seems to be doing well as Axl's assistant but there's a big difference between that and being the general manager of the band (although it's fair to say that anyone would do a better job than Fernando). They could get either Slash's or Duff's manager to manage the whole band, but it's not going to happen.

Well, we know how Fernando does things that are his job and what he is (in)capable of. But this wasn't part of his job. It was Universal's job to look for and collect those demos. I suppose some of them, like the Pasha demos, may not even be in GN'R/UMG's possession. Maybe other people like Alan Niven have them and they didn't want to deal with them.

They didn't actually file it in spring, they just started the process, so there wasn't a lawsuit document detailing what was about and we don't know if the sexual harassment allegations would have been in it. But I suppose there were words, whispers etc. I wouldn't think that they were caught completely by surprise.

I guess he meant for the sexual harassment accusations. It's true that in the US legal system civil law is "where it's at", and that's partially because of the mentality of avoiding "unnecessary" public spending (if I'm not mistaken, criminal cases are state funded). But it's also because cases of this nature (sexual harassment that doesn't involve any heavier sexual or physical abuse) are hard to prove "beyond reasonable doubt" as required in a criminal court, whereas there's not such strict requirements in civil cases.

See also this thread about the lyrics:

It was actually initiated when she registered some of her photos with the US Copyright Office in November 2022 and January 2023. With that it was certain that litigation would follow since GN'R claimed ownership of all her photos.

Yes, I meant full ownership of copyright (because I guess there can be joint ownership, where the photographer is credited but doesn't own the full rights).

Right, I forgot about that.

It's interesting that there's nothing in her lawsuit about the 2010-2014 period (except for a mention of the contracts she had signed then) and all the bad stuff started happening after 2016 when Fernando became sole "general manager". It could be because the statute of limitations for that period has expired, however any potential wrongdoings from then would have been used as supportive arguments. She probably realized that reunion GN'R was a different beast and would give more exposure to her work and she also started working with other artists, so she naturally thought that she should pursue an amendment of her working relationship with GN'R, including higher fees and ownership of copyright.

Yes, there was an attempt by her lawyer to file a lawsuit back in late March (it is mentioned in GN'R's lawsuit, too). But it seems that either her lawyer failed to submit the main lawsuit document in time or she changed her mind, so it's unknown if the sexual harassment accusations would have been in there:

It would rather be in fear of Axl, because Melissa is in the band, deals mostly with the band members and has direct access to Axl..

I think the bottom line is that even if the sexual harassment allegations are exaggerated and not backed by hard evidence, and the purpose of their inclusion is to get a better out of court settlement for the main claim of the lawsuit (the copyright infringement), all this is a very bad look for the band and its management, so Fernando can't continue to be manager anymore.

Regardless of which side is right about the ownership of the photos, this is just incredibly far from how a business as big as GN'R is should be managed. I wonder if Axl knew this. I doubt he did because, for all his flaws (and this has even been considered as one of his flaws) he is known to be infamously obsessed about wanting to have everything on paper and under contract, but also as someone who wants to be fair to people who work for him.

I think Axl first called them that and then it became "official".

Not exactly the same. Axl didn't want Robert John to work with some other artists, but Robert needed the money, so Axl offered to buy his GN'R pictures from him instead. But someone fucked up and Robert didn't get his money, so he sued.

Yes, they sued first (it's mentioned in the Rolling Stone article) for registering some of her photos with the US Copyright Office as owned by her. GN'R claims that according to the contracts she signed, she has no ownership rights over the photos. It also says that Kat tried to sue them back in March (and indeed there is a filing in the legal databases), but the lawsuit was dismissed then because of some technicality (it wasn't filed properly).

This is all very serious (and horrible). However, all the comments that this maybe be the end of GN'R and that there won't be any more releases or touring etc., are too dramatic and overstated.

GN'R's (touring entity) original lawsuit document: https://www.docdroid.net/ecAH9bW/20231024-lawsuit-gundam-touring-services-us-llc-v-benzova-pdf

As we all know, Axl has done things that are the opposite to being a role model as far as treating women. However, for all we know, he has never mistreated women who have worked for or with him.

I suppose that actions that are subject to civil suits or criminal charges are not protected by NDA's.

Yes, they're not going away as his surrogate family and entourage, probably not even Fernando. But he can't continue being the manager, for sure.

The GN'R business entity (Gundam) is among the defendants in her lawsuit, so she has sued the band, too, and Axl, Slash and Duff are named in the lawsuit document for being the band.

Which also begs the question how much of all this the band knew. Kat interacted with Meegan quite a bit, so they must have known.

And we also thought that the current GN'R band and business was relatively drama free. Little did we know...