The Supreme Court
of the United States rejected an appeal involving one of 500 of lawsuits Bridgeport
Music Inc. filed against numerous record labels and publishers, for sampling George
Clinton’s music without their permission.
Bridgeport Music
appealed after lower courts ruled a lawsuit against Still N the Water Publishing,
which represents recordings made by Rap-A-Lot Records, was filed in the wrong
court.
Bridgeport claimed
songs by The Geto Boys, Big Mike, Scarface, Yukmouth and others violated their
copyrights, using portions of music Bridgeport owns by the legendary funkster.
Bridgeport is the
entity that owns the copyrights to his music and Clinton cannot stop the lawsuits
that are filed.
In the late 1990s,
Clinton sued Bridgeport Music in an attempt to regain control of some of his
much-sampled back catalogue, but failed.
Bridgeport is seeking
$150,000 for each of the 500 infringements.