Unhappy Birthday Universal - Vivendi/UMG's other ridiculous lawsuits

Aside from the legal cases already mentioned on this site, Vivendi and UMG have some more stupid litigation behind them.

Back in the day, Vivendi were responsible for retail distribution of Half-Life, under the Sierra label. When they breached their contract with Valve, the game's wonderful developers, Valve sued them. In a counter-suit, they tried to get their hands on the rights to Half-Life itself. This would have meant no Half-Life 2, no Orange Box and no Portal! This in turn would have meant no GLaDOS, no Still Alive and no “The cake is a lie”. And they're at it again, apparently – from the looks of it, they're once again trying to enforce rights they shouldn't even own in the first place.

UMG is also a member of the Recording Industry Association of America, which is infamous for ridiculous lawsuits, the very worst of which are featured here.