Courtney Love Sues Record Label

March 1 -- Courtney Love's dissatisfaction with the inner workings of the music biz took a step forward Wednesday, as a court allowed her to file a countersuit against Vivendi Universal, the parent company of her band's record label.

Universal is suing the Hole frontwoman for failing to deliver the five albums promised in a contract the label says she willingly signed. Love is seeking to break that contract and wants to reveal the "repressive and unfair working conditions" of the recording industry.

"Artists who have generated billions of dollars for the music industry die broke and uncared for by the business they made wealthy," Love said in a statement issued Wednesday. "I'm driven by the misfortune of other artists who don't have my privilege and ability."

Standard recording agreements often lock in artists for many years, requiring them to bear many of their own production and marketing costs and taking a huge chunk of any financial returns they may enjoy, Love's lawyer, A. Barry Cappello, said.

Representatives for the actress-singer appeared at a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court, where a judge granted their motion to file the countersuit.

A representative for Vivendi Universal, the world's biggest music company, was not immediately available for comment but in legal papers dismissed Love's suit as without merit and inflammatory, designed to attract media attention.

Music and legal experts call Love's contract with Universal a standard industry agreement. But Love's lawyer said the case is specifically taking aim at the industry's practice of locking artists into long-term contracts that extend for much longer than allowed in other businesses, like television, film, and sports.

In 1987, the record companies lobbied legislators to pass an amendment to the Labor Code Section 2855, which applies only to recording artists and allows record companies to sue recording artists for damages if the artists do not fulfill their original contract.

After seven years, this amendment is no longer relevant, according to Cappello, and artists have the legal right to terminate a recording contract without repercussions, he said.