TLDR - Kesha accuses manager of assaulting her. Tries to get out of Sony contract. Judge says contract should not be voided and in any case the manager has agreed to not work with her. Righteous fury of SJW follows.

In case you're not on Twitter (and an increasing number of you shouldn't be), you might not have seen #freeKesha top trending worldwide.

In short, Kesha sought to null and void her contract with Sony, because of the producer 'Dr. Luke'. Kesha has accused him of sexual assault etc while producing her earlier records and as such she doesn't want to record with Sony for another album, produced by him, which she is contractually obliged to do. Obviously, the twitterati are indignant that Kesha should be able to do what she pleases and that it is just another example of rape culture/acceptance/you know the score.

For all I know, Kesha's accusations are true and this man is a piece of shit. However, the core argument as to why Kesha's lawsuit was dismissed was that Dr Luke offered her to record with Sony without his involvement at all, which according to the trial judge 'decimated' her argument. Obviously, the reaction online was all one way, and misrepresented to the extent that Kesha would be forced to produce an album with her rapist.

I'd like to add a thought experiment to this. This deal was signed at the start of her career and was likely to be on much worse terms than she could negotiate now as a best-selling artist. If she had just wanted to get out of a contract, would she have behaved any differently? Kesha's fans effectively want her to remove herself of obligations on her say so, for reasons never proved in a court of law, neither a criminal complaint (beyond reasonable doubt), or a civil suit (on the balance of probabilities).

Unfortunately for the social justice mob, the judge in this case is a woman, making the entire 'patriarchy' and 'rape culture' arguments ring a little hollow, though they obviously will still try. I just hope that we are not drawing the next pool of judges and legal scholars from these people.

Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/19/kesha-still-chained-to-dr-luke.html

Lessons learned

  • Sexual assault accusations can be used against you for commercial purposes, not just the sexual revenge we often hear

  • Whether you proved yourself in a court of law, you will never get any benefit of the doubt in the public sphere. We don't know whether Dr Luke is a scumbag, the rest of the world does. Prevention will always be better than cure.

  • Diversify your investments. The $60m he put into Kesha's career is looking like a poor ROI.