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Saturday, October 13, 2007

Perez Hilton

Britney Spears' record label Zomba has sued celebrity blogger Perez Hilton for illegally posting tracks from her forthcoming album on his website

The company claims Hilton -- real name Mario Lavandeira -- illegally obtained and uploaded at least 10 completed songs and incomplete demos from the new CD Blackout onto the site.

The copyright infringement lawsuit was filed by Zomba -- which owns the copyright to Spears' recordings -- on Thursday in the U.S. district court in Los Angeles, but does not specify the amount of monetary damages being sought.

Zomba has confirmed Spears is not a party in the case.

It comes just a day after Lavandeira was the subject of a court summons to appear in the dock in a $20 million defamation case over claims he accused DJ Samantha Ronson of being responsible for the cocaine found in Lindsay Lohan's car following her arrest for driving under the influence.

Deposition

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton has been summoned to court to face questioning over claims Lindsay Lohan's best friend was linked to revealing gossip about the actress.

DJ Samantha Ronson -- younger sister of British-born producer Mark Ronson -- filed a defamation lawsuit against Hilton in July after he accused the star of being responsible for the cocaine found in Lohan's car following her arrest for driving under the influence.

Ronson has also named the Sunset Photo agency in her $20 million suit.

In a supplemental declaration filed with Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, Ronson said, "I am not now and have never been a drug user. I have never handled or touched cocaine. I did not ever place any cocaine at any place at any time."

But Hilton -- real name Mario Lavandeira -- is standing by his report as "accurate and trustworthy," and his rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

His lawyer, Bryan J. Freedman, said, "(Lavandeira) stands by his actions as being legal and proper and believes that the First Amendment protects him."

Freedman also claims Judge Elihu M. Berle's Wednesday court order for Hilton's deposition was just to give the prosecution another chance at trying him for defamation.

He added: "The judge at this point found that (Ronson's attorneys) didn't provide any evidence of malice ... so the judge was going to give them one more bite of the apple (by allowing the deposition).

"If Ms. Ronson is attempting to get some sort of relief in court and to show that Mario Lavandeira had any malice, I think she's going to a hardware store for milk. It's just not going to happen."

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