Attorneys for dozens of reggaeton artists, including global stars Bad Bunny and J Balvin, on Friday sought to persuade a federal judge that the so-called “dembow” beat incorporated in a 1989 instrumental track by two Jamaican producers wasn’t an original creation that merits copyright protection. U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. declined to rule at a downtown Los Angeles hearing on cross-motions for summary judgment over whether the percussion arrangement of “Fish Market,” a B-side recorded by Cleveland Browne and the late Wycliffe Johnson, professionally known as Steely and Clevie, is original enough to merit copyright protection. But the judge said the sprawling lawsuit ultimately turns on dueling expert testimony over whether the Jamaican producers’ drum pattern — including kick, snare, hi-hat and tom elements — was sufficiently original to support claims that thousands of reggaeton songs unlawfully copied it. “I have to decide as a matter of law for one side or the other when there’s an army of experts basically shooting at each other,” Birotte said, referring to the numerous reports of musicologists the plaintiffs and defendants filed to support their arguments. If the Barack Obama appointee denies both sides’ requests for summary judgment — which would resolve the dispute based on undisputed facts — the case would proceed to a jury unless the parties settle. Stephen Doniger, who represents Browne and Johnson’s estate, said defense experts failed to identify any earlier work containing the same combination of drum, percussion and bass elements found in “Fish Market.” “What is clear in this case is that there’s nothing out there in the world that shows that they copied” the percussion arrangement, Doniger told the judge. Doniger acknowledged that “Fish Market” incorporates a common habanera rhythm — a kick-and-snare boom-ch, boom-ch pattern that is not copyrightable — but said Steely and Clevie layered additional percussion elements that made the arrangement subtly but distinctly original. The infringement claims are complicated by the song’s later history. “Fish Market” was first recorded as a B-side to Gregory Peck’s “Poco Man Jam,” then licensed to dancehall artist Shabba Ranks, who used it in his 1990 hit “Dem Bow,” giving rise to what became known as the “dembow riddim” or “dembow rhythm” moniker. Next, “Dennis the Menace” Halliburton incorporated the rhythm into his “Pounder Riddim" recording. Plaintiffs say a later version, “Pounder Dub Mix II,” was then sampled or copied “mathematically” by numerous reggaeton artists in recent years. Benjamin Akley, who represents many of the accused artists and record labels, countered that the producers’ original percussion arrangement does not appear in any single work. Instead, he argued, plaintiffs stitched together elements from multiple tracks to claim ownership of a protectable composition. The “Pounder Dub Mix,” Akley said, merely recreates aspects of “dembow” by looping two separate, noncontiguous measures from “Fish Market.” “None of this matters if they don’t own what they claim they own,” Akley told the judge. “The rest is shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic.” Akley also argued that features of the “Fish Market” percussion arrangement — such as timbre and texture — which the producers say make the work original, are too abstract to qualify for copyright protection under Ninth Circuit law. Ken Freundlich, who represents Bad Bunny, accused the plaintiffs of “shapeshifting,” saying they were trying to assemble a Frankenstein-like work from pieces of different recordings, leaving defendants unclear about what, if anything, they are accused of infringing. “We have thousands of songs in this case and we still don’t know what we’re comparing them to,” Freundlich told the judge. “That’s the cardinal sin of this case — we don’t know what we’re infringing.” Birotte last year denied the defendants’ bid to dismiss the lawsuit, in part because he said that, it was too early at that stage of the litigation to determine if “Fish Market” and the subsequent works were original enough to warrant copyright protection. The judge told the lawyers he’ll try to issue a ruling on the motions for summary judgment by the end of January.

Don Francisco, the veteran talk-show host who dazzled millions of Spanish-speaking viewers with his Saturday-night program “Sábado Gigante” on Univision, will return to the network. The host, whose program was canceled in 2015 after a run of more than half a century, will host a new limited-run interview series featuring “major personalities from the Hispanic world,” the network said Tuesday during a presentation to advertisers as part of the industry’s annual “upfront” market. The format is expected to feature intimate, close conversations that will be heighted because Francisco’s program is not a regular part of the Univision schedule. The show represents a homecoming of sorts, and would be the equivalent of NBC tapping Johnny Carson to host one-one-one conversations with notables following the end of his tenure on “The Tonight Show:” in 1992. Francisco, whose real name is Mario Kreutzberger, has not been a regular part of the Univision schedule since “Sábado Gigante” ended in 2015. The three-hour-plus program regularly featured contests, comedy segments, roundtables with children, and even travelogues, and aired for 53 years, starting in 1962. It reached the U.S. in 1986. Its popularity was so great — at one time, Univision would boast that the series reached 80 million viewers each week in over 20 countries — that its final episode aired simultaneously in Chile, Mexico, and the United States. Following the show’s demise, Francisco moved to Spanish-language rival Telemundo, owned by NBCUniversal, where he hosted 100 episodes of a Sunday-night talk show that ended in 2018. “Sábado Gigante” was known for its willingness to weave advertising into its format, with segments often sponsored by products ranging from Coca-Cola and Sprite to Cap’n Crunch and Allstate.

Netflix is expanding its presence in Argentina, opening new offices in the nation’s capital to support a raft of local productions as the streamer continues to bolster its presence in Latin America.

Netflix announced it had opened a new 20,000-square-foot office in Buenos Aires to accommodate 40 employees and a range of upcoming local film and TV projects. The streamer began making local content in the country in 2018.

“Argentina has become a key player in our regional strategy thanks to its audiovisual heritage, creative prowess, and ability to tell local stories whose significance and impact make them universal,” Francisco Ramos, vice president of content for Netflix Latin America, said in a statement.

The announcement marks the latest expansion in Latin America for Netflix, which opened new offices in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and in Mexico City earlier this year.

The newly-announced Netflix Argentina projects include several series, films and documentaries, set to be released this year or early next year, that “serve as a mirror of local culture and resonate with the Argentinian spirit,” the company said in its statement.

They include an animated series based on the popular “Mafalda” comics, a dystopian miniseries based on a Philip K. Dick novel and a Fito Páez documentary.

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Santiago Mitre’s new political thriller started filming last month in Argentina. Also in the works is a film adaptation of the acclaimed play “Felicidades.”

Netflix said that its “dedication to Argentinian cinema” is driven largely by new stories led by prominent local figures, “both in front of and behind the camera.”

At an event last month, Netflix executives emphasized the importance of original storytelling.

The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company reaches nearly a billion viewers in more than 190 countries and in 50 languages.

As a global service, local language content has remained a key priority for Netflix. In the second half of 2025, non-English stories made up nearly a third of everything watched.

Broadway's Buena Vista Social Club will hold another dance-along performance at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre May 14, this time hosted by John Leguizamo. A March 26 dance-along was hosted by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The musical began performances February 21 and opened March 19, 2025.

Inspired by the Grammy-winning 1997 album of the same name, Buena Vista Social Club features a book by Marco Ramirez (The Royale). The musical brings the album to life and tells the story of the legends who lived it. Director Saheem Ali returned after staging the musical's 2023 world premiere Off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company. Choreographers Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck won a 2025 Tony Award for their work on the show, also back from the Off-Broadway premiere.

Buena Vista Social Club is both the name given to this extraordinary group of musicians and the album, recorded in just seven days in 1996. The trio of Cuban bandleader Juan de Marcos González, American producer and guitarist Ry Cooder, and British producer and label owner Nick Gold assembled an impromptu group of Cuban musicians in Havana’s 1950s vintage EGREM studios. The album would become a worldwide phenomenon: awarded a Grammy in 1997 and, at over eight million copies, outselling any other record in the same genre. The acclaim of the album has elevated the artists (including Ibrahim Ferrer, Rubén González, and Omara Portuondo) to superstar status and inspired an award-winning film by Wim Wenders.