2013-05-11 03:23:22 UTC
Near the end of the band's life in july of 2012 we made a 3-track demo of new material, and the only original people remaining from the band's start were myself and the lead singer. I got in a dispute with the two newer members (the bassist and drummer), who said we needed to recruit another guitarist to fill our sound. During this time our lead singer was learning guitar so i suggested that he do it, and he agreed.
I came to the next practice to find out that the bassist and drummer had fired me and the lead singer, and recruited 2 guitarists and a new singer who knew our music pretty well to play instead. Anyways, they ended up kicking us out before the 3-track was released, so when it was released it was my playing on it and the old lead singer's singing. We were totally uncredited on the record despite the fact that it was us playing.
Me and the lead singer decided to move on with our lives and we started a new two-person project where he played bass, guitar and sang and I played drums and guitar. We were rather irked still about what happened to us so we decided we were going to re-write the bass and drum parts for the 3-track and release it under our new name. A day after we put out the album, the drummer called us and told us what we were doing was illegal and we could go to jail for it unless we pulled the album, so i told him that it's illegal to take credit for someone else's work and then not compensate them for it, so if he gave us the 1750$ that was owed to us we wouldn't have a problem.
To this day they continue to play our music and profit off of it and we don't see a penny of the money, we are now owed over 10,000$ in album sales, merchandise and damages. What I want to know, mainly, is if I have a case here against them or not and who is in the right or wrong.