Last we heard about Kesha’s lawsuit against super-producer Dr. Luke for sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, the suit had been updated to include Sony Music Entertainment itself as a defendant. There haven’t been many updates since then, which is precisely why her legal team pressed New York courts for a preliminary injunction against Dr. Luke, aka Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald. They contend that Kesha can’t move forward with her career until the situation has been rectified.

Vulture has excerpts from their request:

Until this Court rules on the declaratory judgment claim, Kesha is at an impasse. She cannot work with music producers, publishers, or record labels to release new music. With no new music to perform, Kesha cannot tour. Off the radio and stage and out of the spotlight, Kesha cannot sell merchandise, receive sponsorships, or get media attention. Her brand value has fallen, and unless the Court issues this injunction, Kesha will suffer irreparable harm, plummeting her career past the point of no return.

This isn’t even an exaggeration, given that Kesha is signed to Dr. Luke’s Sony imprint, Kemosabe Records. She literally can’t work until the matter has been resolved. Former Universal CEO Jim Urie also provided a statement about the way Dr. Luke has enlisted the entire industry to blacklist Kesha for the lawsuit:

No mainstream distribution company will invest the money necessary to distribute songs for an artist who has fallen from the public eye… If Kesha cannot immediately resume recording and having her music promoted, marketed, and distributed by a major label, her career is effectively over.

Additionally, Sony has begun attempting to disentangle themselves from the lawsuit. They contend that since she didn’t report the alleged abuse, they had no prior knowledge of it:

She cannot claim that Gottwald [Dr. Luke] intimidated her into silence, then — as an apparent afterthought — seek to hold Sony and Kemosabe Records liable for failing to act on conduct that she did not report.

I would argue that if any kind of abuse can be rectified, it should be. Plus, if Kesha’s claims are true, it seems unlikely that no one at Sony ever had knowledge of any of this. Either way, this definitely needs to be resolved as quickly as possible.

UPDATE: Dr. Luke’s attorney provided Stereogum with the following statement:

We are confident this motion will be denied because it is without merit. Kesha continues to make the same false claims of abuse against Dr. Luke she testified never happened under penalty of perjury. As with all pleadings in this case, her affidavit is vague and unsubstantiated, with pivotal details such as dates fudged, and notably fails to address her unequivocal prior sworn testimony to the contrary.

If Kesha now regrets her career being mired in legal proceedings, it’s entirely her making. It was Kesha who chose to file a lawsuit falsely alleging abuse to gain advantage in contract negotiations, and now she must accept the consequences of her improper actions. As long as she continues to stand by her false claims of abuse against Dr. Luke and remains in breach of her contracts, he will continue to protect his professional and personal reputation, as well as his contractual rights, in a court of law. He looks forward to obtaining judgments in his favor.