Nearly three decades after rapper Tupac Shakur's fatal Las Vegas drive-by shooting in 1996, a jury trial has commenced to adjudicate the murder. Duane "Keffe D" Davis stands charged with first-degree murder based on allegations he orchestrated the attack. Prosecutors have presented secret recordings of Davis discussing the incident and passages from his published memoir in which he describes his alleged role, whilst his defence contends the book constitutes commercial fiction rather than reliable evidence.

This week's music law developments extended beyond the Shakur case. The former manager of Notorious B.I.G. won a court order requiring the rapper's widow to share proceeds from a catalogue sale. A British singer initiated legal action against her ex-managers for allegedly concealing a multinational entertainment firm's controlling ownership stake in their company. In separate litigation, a music publisher sued two artificial-intelligence companies for purportedly using thousands of recordings without authorisation to train generative models, seeking over $1 billion in damages. The week also featured resolutions and ongoing proceedings in other celebrity disputes involving management contracts, personal liability allegations, and contractual fraud claims.