Two years after the case was thrown out, Michigan appeals judges Elizabeth Gleicher and Michael Kelly have ruled that Dr. Dre must answer charges that he infringed on the privacy rights of three Detroit employees by taping their conversations.
The suit stems from a July 2000 concert stop of Dre’s memorable Up In Smoke Tour.
The employees were secretly videotaped as they urged the concert promoters to not show the audience a video prop containing nudity.
The footage was later showcased on a DVD chronicling the tour. While the workers held the taping violated their privacy rights, Wayne County Judge John A. Murphy dismissed the case in 2007.
He cited that the workers had no claim to privacy, since their conversation took place in a room with an open door.
The two appeals judges reversed the decision this year, stating “we reject the notion that as a matter of law, parties may not conduct a private conversation…in a public place, or a location when nonparticipants in the conversation are physically present. ”
Furthermore, the judges specified that Dr. Dre’s distribution of the conversation to a nationwide audience “deprived the participants of their right to control the reach of their words.”
At press time, a new court date has not been announced. Dr. Dre’s serially delayed Detox is still slated for release this year, although no set date has been verified.