By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Martin Shkreli must face a lawsuit by a digital art collective that owns a one-of-a-kind album by the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, and accused the convicted former pharmaceutical executive of copying the album and playing it online without permission.

In a 32-page decision on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen said Shkreli must face claims he misappropriated “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” from the PleasrDAO collective, which paid about $4 million for the album in 2021.

PleasrDAO is a decentralized group that buys what its members view as culturally significant materials.

The Brooklyn judge dismissed some other claims, including two she said were preempted by federal copyright law.

Shkreli paid $2 million for “Shaolin” in 2015, but gave it u

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