Pitchfork

Looks like it's back to the drawing board for onetime Ramones drummer Richie Ramone (born Richard Reinhardt), whose previously reported lawsuit against Apple, RealNetworks, and Wal-Mart over royalties has been dismissed by a federal judge in New York, according to reports from The Associated Press and Wired.

Richie, as you may recall, served in the Ramones from 1983-1987 and was seeking some $900,000 from the digital sale of six Ramones tunes he penned, as well as an injunction prohibiting the Ramones from selling or distributing those tunes. He claimed digital sales were not covered in his original contract with the band.

The judge, however, noted that the wording in Richie's contract clearly accounted for future reproduction technologies, including digital music sales. She also found a few holes in Richie's logic regarding digital music distribution and declared his argument that digital files are transmitted and licensed rather than manufactured and sold "without merit."

One of those Richie Ramone compositions, tellingly? "I Know Better Now".