The company behind the Savannah Bananas has been sued over a drum track in two TikTok videos. The music company that filed the case says the team uploaded the audio under its own name, so anyone on the app could reuse it as a “Savannah Bananas” sound.
Music L.A.A., which does business as LAA Music, filed the suit against Fans First Entertainment LLC on Oct. 23, 2026, in federal court in Nashville. The track, a registered drum composition called “Boo,” is also at the center of a suit LAA filed two weeks earlier against Shein. It is one of at least five such suits LAA has filed since late September, including the one we covered in October, when it sued activewear brand Oner Active.
None of the claims has been proven. As of Oct. 31, the dockets on CourtListener showed no response from Fans First or Shein. In the Bananas case, the court has set a first case-management call by phone for March 2, 2027.
What the Bananas’ owner is accused of
The 11-page complaint points to two videos. The first was posted around Dec. 30, 2025, by a performer known as “The Glove Magician,” who is named as a defendant without his real name. LAA says it was filmed on the field at the team’s home stadium under a sign reading “Home of the Savannah Bananas.”
The second went up around April 24, 2026, on the team’s official account, @thesavbananas. According to LAA, the team did not pick the track from TikTok’s licensed music library. It uploaded the audio itself and labeled it as the Bananas’ own sound.
That label is the basis for a separate claim. Federal law bars knowingly giving false information about who owns or wrote a work in order to enable or hide infringement. LAA says the “Savannah Bananas” credit did that. The complaint seeks between $2,500 and $25,000 for each such violation, on top of copyright damages of up to $150,000 if the court finds the infringement was willful.
A notice, a license offer and a refusal
The complaint also describes a short exchange before the lawsuit. LAA says it sent Fans First a written notice on Aug. 24, 2026, and offered to settle with a retroactive license after the team’s outside lawyers responded on Aug. 28.
On Sept. 2, LAA says, those lawyers declined to point to any license, made no offer and said Fans First would not correspond further. LAA says both videos were still online when it filed.
The Shein case uses the same registration
LAA and its co-plaintiff, Zac Hiller, sued Shein US Services LLC and Shein Distribution Corp. on Oct. 9 in federal court in Michigan. Their complaint covers two sponsored posts.
The first is an Instagram Reel carrying a “Paid Partnership” label that identifies Shein. The plaintiffs say they found it around Sept. 4, 2026, and that it uses a beat called “Take it Off ‘Lights Off’ Beat.” The second is a creator’s TikTok promoting Shein and Shein Men with an #ad tag and a discount code, which they say they found around Oct. 4. It uses “Boo.”
The complaint says both videos were posted by other accounts, whose operators are listed only as unnamed defendants. The plaintiffs say Shein commissioned, approved or paid for the posts, but they make that claim “on information and belief.” That legal phrase means they believe it but don’t yet have direct proof. They say the campaign contracts and payment records are in Shein’s hands.
Five companies in less than four weeks
We searched CourtListener’s federal records and found that LAA filed suits against five companies between Sept. 28 and Oct. 23. The same Toledo, Ohio, lawyer, Hal D. Burke, signed every complaint we could read. Comparing those complaints also shows the same two registrations coming up again and again.
| Filed | Company sued | Court | Track named |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept. 28 | ASW Distribution LLC (CCS) | E.D. Michigan | Complaint not public on CourtListener |
| Oct. 6 | Made Hoops LLC | E.D. Michigan | “Trae1” (beat in “Shells”) |
| Oct. 9 | Shein | E.D. Michigan | “Take it Off,” “Boo” |
| Oct. 15 | Oner Active USA LLC | E.D. Michigan | “Take it Off,” “Boo,” “Baby” |
| Oct. 23 | Fans First Entertainment (Savannah Bananas) | M.D. Tennessee | “Boo” |
Source: complaints and dockets on CourtListener, checked Oct. 31, 2026. A second Oner Active docket opened on Oct. 13 has no documents in the archive.
“Boo” is registered as PA 2-569-090. The Shein complaint says the registration covers Kristers Zemnieks’ music, arrangement, drum composition and rhythm, but not an older loop used in the track. It appears in the Shein, Oner and Bananas complaints. “Take it Off” is registered as SR 1-075-539, and it appears in both the Shein and Oner cases.
The Made Hoops complaint involves a different track. It says LAA bought “Trae1” from its creator in September 2025, and that the youth basketball business used it in two TikToks posted in May and September 2026.
Why the timing of registration keeps coming up
Under U.S. copyright law, an owner usually can’t collect statutory damages or attorney’s fees for an infringement that began before the work was registered. The exception is a work registered within three months of first publication. Statutory damages are amounts set by law, so the owner doesn’t have to prove an actual loss.
That is why the complaints are careful about dates. “Boo” was registered effective Jan. 26, 2026. The Bananas complaint stresses that the team’s own video came “nearly three months” after that date. For the Glove Magician video, which was posted before registration, it asks for statutory damages and fees only “to the full extent permitted” by the law.
A travel company sued LAA first
Not every brand has waited to be sued. On Sept. 16, Utah vacation-booking company Get Away Today sued LAA, Pr1me Sound LLC and Justin Goldman. Its complaint describes Goldman as an LAA co-founder. The company is asking a judge to declare that it did not infringe anything.
According to Get Away Today’s complaint, Goldman emailed on Sept. 6 demanding $150,000. The demand was over a TikTok posted by a creator whom the company had given a Disney park trip. The video used the song “Gang Gang” by Chef Boy, and the company says it had about 10,300 views. The company says it offered $15,000, and Goldman countered with $125,000 as his “best and final.”
The complaint quotes Goldman as writing, “We have gotten $150k from multiple different companies regarding this song.” It also says he wrote that a registration had been “just expedited,” but had not shared a registration number. These are Get Away Today’s allegations. The docket on CourtListener, last updated Sept. 18, shows no response from LAA.
For brands that pay creators, the cases raise one practical question. The Shein and Oner complaints both argue that a company can be liable for music in a sponsored post, even when a creator picked the song. So far, none of these dockets shows a ruling on that argument.
Featured image: Grayson Stadium in Savannah, Georgia, home of the Savannah Bananas. Photo: Will120 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
