Believe it or not since the 1850’s federal courts have been
dealing with copyright infringement. Back then you think it would be a lot
easier to come up with an original piece of music. Over the past twenty years
the number of these cases has blown up. Is it that there’s so much music out
there it’s hard to come up with a new groove, or is it the whole sampling thing?
At any rate the list of artists being slapped with copyright lawsuits is long.
Way back, Michael Bolton released a song with the
same name and some of the same lyrics as The Isley Brothers. Michael
argued that there was no plagiarism going on but the court disagreed and
awarded the Isley Brothers 5.4 million dollars. Bet the Isley Brothers wished
he would rip off more of their beats. Then there was the time Vanilla Ice
penned Ice Ice Baby and didn’t realize that altering the rhythm and base
line of Queen & Bowie’s Under Pressure wasn’t enough
to call it your own and skip the whole getting permission, giving credit and
paying royalties thing. More recently Usher, David Guetta, Kanye
West, Will.I.Am, Chris Brown, Led Zeppelin (Yes, Led
Zepplin), Justin Bieber, Beyonce and Jay Z are on the
short list of those sued for copyright infringement.
The trial over Blurred Lines starts next month and
has Pharrell and Robin Thicke hoping they won’t Got To Give It
Up to Marvin Gaye's estate. Then just this week Sam Smith
very quietly and classily settled a dispute with Tom Petty over the
likeness between Sam’s three-time Grammy- nominated Stay With Me and
Petty’s I Won't Back Down. Sam’s camp says the similarity is a “complete
coincidence”.
What isn’t a complete coincidence is that sparks will be
flyin’ off the ones and two's when I hit you up with custom HK remixes
this weekend. You’re gonna want to turn the volume way up when I rework Mark
Ronson featuring Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk , Alesso
- Heroes, Calvin Harris featuring John Newman – Blame,
Ella Henderson - Ghost, Nick Jonas – Chains, Taylor
Swift – Style and so much more!
Remember…if it's hot, if it's new and it makes you wanna
move…you're In The Mix with
HK™.
