Cher has secured a major legal victory after a federal judge issued a final ruling in her four-year royalties battle with Mary Bono, the widow of Cher’s late ex-husband, Sonny Bono. The judgment grants the music icon nearly everything she sought, including the payment of substantial legal costs.

US District Judge John A. Kronstadt formally cemented his earlier decision finding that Mary Bono, who oversees Sonny Bono’s estate, could not use the federal Copyright Act to terminate the 50 per cent share of Sonny’s composition royalties that Cher was awarded in the pair’s 1978 divorce agreement. Those royalties include earnings from timeless hits such as “I Got You Babe” and “The Beat Goes On.”

Mary Bono had attempted to reclaim those rights by invoking the copyright termination provision, a

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