Hole [ tickets ] singer Courtney Love has filed suit against Universal Music Group, alleging that the label violated a California law that allows contracts between artists and entertainment companies to be severed after seven years, she and her lawyer announced on Wednesday (2/28).

The cross-complaint is in reaction to a breach-of-contract suit that Universal-owned Geffen Records--a label that has since been shuttered--filed against Love and bandmate Eric Erlandson in January 2000. Universal's suit maintains that Love and Erlandson owe the company five more albums. Hole is attempting to leave the label, citing the so-called "seven-year statute."

In a press release, Love said that she rightfully canceled her contract after Universal closed Geffen, which originally signed Love and her band in 1992. Her complaint alleges that Geffen Records provided special and unique services to its artists, and that Universal's closure of Geffen rendered Love's contract void. (Hole released two records on Geffen: 1994's "Live Through This" and 1998's "Celebrity Skin.")

Universal did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Love's attorney, A. Barry Cappello, said in a press release that California's Labor Code Section 2855 was created in 1945 to end the "oppressive [motion picture] studio contract system that was standard at the time."

"Film studios literally held in their hands the artistic and financial futures of its under-contract actors. It was servitude existence that the state legislature corrected 56 years ago."

That statute, also known as the DeHaviland Law, limits any contract between a creative artist and an entertainment company to seven years, "essentially giving artists the opportunity to obtain their freedom if they are experiencing repressive or unfair working conditions. Unfortunately, while today's film actors enjoy the equitable compensation and creative freedom intended by Section 2855, music artists do not," Cappello added.

In 1987, the California legislature passed an amendment to the DeHaviland Law that allows record companies to sue its artists for damages if the artists do not fulfill a contract. It was under that statue that Geffen--now Universal--filed its breach-of-contract suit against Love in 2000.

Cappello, however, argued that Universal's suit is no longer relevant because Love's contract was signed more than seven years ago. "... Artists have the legal right to terminate a contract with a recording company after seven years without repercussions," he said.

"Despite this, the recording industry continues to intimidate artists who try to terminate their contracts after seven years by suing them for future damages in the form of lost profits. We're out to prove that this is patently inconsistent with the provisions allowed by state law. When we do, it will shake the very core of the way business is conducted in the music industry, and it will give countless musicians the financial and artistic freedom they do not currently enjoy."

Love's complaint also claims that record companies are not giving performers sufficient royalties from the more than $1 billion that they allegedly make from music purchased through record clubs each year.

Said Cappello, "The record clubs pay hundreds of millions of dollars in up-front fees to record companies in order to sell their artists' CDs, but the record companies do not disclose these fees to their artists when calculating royalties. The end result is that artists receive little or no royalties for record club sales while the record companies pocket hundreds of millions of dollars from these relationships."

In a statement, Love argued that record companies have a long history of signing artists to "oppressive" deals.

"Story after story gets told about artists like the Chambers Brothers who wrote and recorded 'Time Has Come Today' and have never been paid a dime in royalties," she said. "Legendary blues singer Howlin' Wolf was broke when he died. Many of the most popular hard rock bands of the '80s like Skid Row, Slaughter, Warrant, Ratt and Poison sold tens of millions of records but still found themselves broke by the end of the '90s with no health care or benefits from their oppressive recording contracts. Florence Ballard from the Supremes died on welfare. Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes were paid no royalties for over 35 years until they prevailed in a lawsuit in 2000."

She went on to say that "[record] companies lied in 1987 to convince the California Legislature that recording artists should be indentured servants at no pay for their entire careers ... They said that it takes 'seven albums in seven years' to make money from an artist ... [but] any artist who isn't making huge profits for the company by their second album will be summarily dropped.''

With the help of the Screen Actors Guild and other labor organizations, Love and other recording artists plan to form a recording artists guild, the statement said.

The Love case is not the first time a high-profile musical act has invoked the seven-year statute to end or renegotiate a recording contract. Metallica, Toni Braxton, Don Henley and Beck have all invoked the law, which has not yet been tested in a court trial. In the case of Beck's dispute with Geffen, the two parties settled their differences out of court.

According to some analysts, labels are frightened that if a case like this ever goes to trial, the law could be upheld, setting a precedent for the ultimate length of time an artist could be under contract to a label.