George Clinton Sues Black Eyede Peas

[pshark]

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Dec 14th 2010 4:25pm


George Clinton Sues Black Eyed Peas; Apparently He No Longer Thinks Sampling Is 'Cool'
from the all-about-the-cash dept

A few years back, we pointed to this wonderful interview with funk legend George Clinton [[and the second half is with hip hop legend Hank Shocklee, which makes it even more interesting), all about music sampling, where Clinton claims sampling's "cool" and "good." He says "it's a whole new music -- a new way of making music." And he says that it helps young people learn how to make and play music as well as learn important skills like how to use a computer. He talks about how glad he was when hip hop artists started making records with samples. The interviewer points out that in many cases Clinton wouldn't get paid for those samples and he notes that it's okay because, in the long run, he'd figure out how to make money from it. In fact, he notes that the rise of hip hop using many of his samples revived interest in his band leading them to get back out on the road and to make money touring again. He even put out some records specifically for sampling. He does talk about how, if someone makes money, he expects them to share some of the proceeds and how he prefers that bands clear samples beforehand, but he seems to think that these things can all be worked out pretty easily. Towards the end of the interview, he notes that licenses should be "pennies" per song to make it reasonable, and that "it's blackmail the way it is now."

Perhaps he's changed his mind when it comes to a band like the Black Eyed Peas, as he's apparently suing the band for sampling one of his tunes. I believe that report misstates previous lawsuits by saying they involved Clinton, when they were actually done by Bridgeport Music -- a company that Clinton has claimed forged his signature to claim rights to his music. This report suggests that Clinton himself is now following in Bridgeport's footsteps though [[Bridgeport has become famous for suing a ton of musicians demanding a ton of money for samples). Another report on the lawsuit says that Clinton is accusing someone [[yet again) of forging his signature to say that this license was cleared.

In the end, once again, this is disappointing that rather than focusing on making cool and unique new music, people are focusing on going to court and fighting over who should be able to put up a toll booth on new music.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...-is-cool.shtml

[marv2]

Good! He should sue everybody! So much of his music has been sampled and ripoff over the last 15 years or so it isn't even funny! Go George!!!

[funky_fresh]

There is a great discussion over this at the onenationboardroom,com

You must also be schooled on the funkprobosci and the moves GC is making. ZEEP conversations on all that is P.

[skooldem1]

Does George own the music rights? I thougth I had read a couple of years ago that he didn't own them.

[pshark]

^George Clinton Wins Funkadelic Rights

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By JEFF LEEDS
Published: June 7, 2005

LOS ANGELES, June 6 - A federal judge here has given the funk music pioneer George Clinton his groove back.

In a decision issued last week, Judge Manuel L. Real of Federal District Court of Los Angeles returned ownership of the master recordings of four albums Mr. Clinton made in the 1970's with his band Funkadelic: "One Nation Under a Groove," "Hardcore Jollies," "Uncle Jam Wants You" and "The Electric Spanking of War Babies."
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Fabrice Coffrini/Associated Press

George Clinton, the leader of Parliament and Funkadelic, has been in a 12-year battle for rights.
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Forum: Popular Music

In winning possession of the recordings, Mr. Clinton can now control licensing and distribution of the music and lay claim to millions of dollars in past licensing fees.

"That feels real good," he said in a telephone interview on Monday. "It feels good mainly because it gives me another shot."

The ruling came as the latest twist in a 12-year legal fight over the rights to the recordings and the copyrights to the songs of Funkadelic and of Parliament, Mr. Clinton's other funk band. The most recent case centered around disputes among Mr. Clinton, several former business associates and a former manager.

Don Engel, a lawyer who represented Mr. Clinton at the trial, says Mr. Clinton may be entitled to millions of dollars in past licensing fees from record labels whose artists lifted samples, or snippets, from Parliament and Funkadelic albums while recording new music. Mr. Engel also said that Mr. Clinton now has grounds to seek compensation for the rerelease of the albums in 2002 by Priority Records, now a unit of the music giant EMI Group.

The flamboyant Mr. Clinton, who said he was 64, must now decide how hard to press for past money, and whether he still has a chance to win control of song copyrights to his old work. In 2001 he lost a court ruling in a case in which he contended that he still owned the songs. They are now controlled by his onetime music publisher, Bridgeport Music. It is not clear whether the latest ruling would provide for a new claim on that issue.

"I'm still writing the whole history of the thing," Mr. Clinton said. "I just want my stuff back."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/07/ar...ic/07funk.html

There is a great discussion over this at the onenationboardroom,com

You must also be schooled on the funkprobosci and the moves GC is making. ZEEP conversations on all that is P.

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George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic George Clinton vs Black Eyed Peas - don't believe the hype. We are writing our blog right now and will announce when the real story will be available on line. You can believe the story is a lot different than what you are hearing.
23 hours ago · LikeUnlike · Comment

[skooldem1]

That's great news. I hadn't heard that.

[the_chicks_call_me__slick]

Maybe he feels The Bomb squad used samples superbly, creating fantastic new funk tracks with them, as opposed to the Black Eyed Peas simply churning out pop sh*t by the bucket load with them?

There should be some kind of agreement drawn up whereby the sampled artists get's paid, but it's not so much that is discourages the use of samples.

[soulster]

Maybe the drugs Clinton did caught up with him.

Clinton was never known to be very business savvy.

I think it's because he now may be hurting for money, and he's seeing a way to some mo dough. How many times can a person claim his signature was forged?

Black Eyed peas. First Harry Wayne Casey goes after them for not crediting him for sampling his tune, and now George Clinton goes after them. I wonder who will be next.

The BEP use a clearing house that deals specifically with clearing music for sampling.

[pshark]

This is from GC's FB:
George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic George Clinton vs Black Eyed Peas - don't believe the hype. We are writing our blog right now and will announce when the real story will be available on line. You can believe the story is a lot different than what you are hearing.

[pshark]