Comments on: The Overlawyered iMix

By: Walter Olson

Walter Olson — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 00:15:30 +0000

1) New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, has been asked to resolve issues raised by a lawsuit between Lynyrd Skynyrd band member Edward King and his lawyer over allegedly unconscionable fees. See Point of Law, Aug. 10, http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/001442.php . 2) The Milli Vanilli lip-synching class actions are indeed worthy of derision, since they exemplify litigation manufactured by and for lawyers. As I describe the affair in The Rule of Lawyers: "When the cases eventually settled, the record company offered a $3 rebate to any customer who could offer proof of having bought one of the band's albums, while the lawyers requested court-ordered fees approaching $2 million. How spontaneous were the litigants' grievances? 'Of the 49 plaintiffs in the Milli Vanilli cases, at least 41 appear to have had pre-existing relationships to lawyers, most of whom worked at firms specializing in class-action cases. And many of the plaintiffs say they agreed to file suit at the suggestion of a lawyer,' reported the Wall Street Journal's Amy Stevens. Attorneys 'found clients in their own law offices and contacted their friends with teenage children'; one 'didn't know she was a plaintiff until she read it in the newspaper.' As a matter of fact, the lawyers were doing very much the same thing that the record promoters had done: line up appealing if vacuous faces to lip-synch their own compositions."

By: BRADSHAW

BRADSHAW — Mon, 15 Aug 2005 23:42:15 +0000

In 1984, Ray Parker Jr. scored his first across-the-board #1 with the theme song from the movie ‘Ghostbusters.’ It topped the Pop and Soul charts for over a month and became one of that year’s biggest hits. Parker later settled a lawsuit with Huey Lewis because of Ghostbusters’ similarity to Lewis’s 1983 hit “I Want A New Drug.”

By: Eion

Eion — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 15:50:31 +0000

I’m shocked by the omission of 2 Live Crew from the list. They had an obscenity case, Luke Records v. Navarro, 960 F.2d 134 (11th Cir. 1992), and the more famous Supreme Court copyright case in 1994 (at http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/92-1292.ZS.html).

There’s also about NWA’s “100 Miles and Runnin”? In a slightly crazy 6th Circuit decision, use of a 3-note sample in NWA’s song, subsequently used in the soundtrack of a movie, was actionable copyright infringement (http://fsnews.findlaw.com/cases/6th/04a0297p.html).

By: DrReptile

DrReptile — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 09:19:27 +0000

I should have researched the My Sweet Lord/He’s So Fine plagarism lawsuit. It doesn’t surprise me that the $1 judgment was apocryphal. I should also get the real story on John Fogarty’s “Centerfield” and his lawsuit with Saul Zaentz too.

Meanwhile, here’s another of Dr. Reptile’s Greatest Hits Theme CD’s that is apropos of the subject at hand.

MONEY FOR NOTHING

Money-Pink Floyd
Money For Nothing-Dire Straits
Rich Man-Climax Blues Band
First I Look At The Purse-J. Geils
Money (That’s What I Want)-Barrett Strong
Cold Hard Cash-Greg Kihn
Lawyers, Guns And Money-Warren Zevon
Money-The Rolling Stones
It’s Money That I Love-Randy Newman
Easy Money-Todd Snider
Where’s The Money?-Dan Hicks
The Moneygoround-The Kinks
Take the Money and Run-The Steve Miller Band
Money Talks-JJ Cale
Baby You’re A Rich Man-The Beatles
Blue Money-Van Morrison
If I Had $1,000,000-Barenaked Ladies
She Works Hard For Her Money-Donna Summer
Money, Money, Money-ABBA
Money Honey-Ry Cooder
If You’ve Got The Money, I’ve Got The Time-Willie Nelson
Greenback Dollar-Kingston Trio
You Never Give Me Your Money-The Beatles
We’re In The Money-Broadway cast

By: Ted

Ted — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 05:24:58 +0000

“My Sweet Lord” was found to have unintentionally plagiarized the musically almost identical “He’s So Fine,” and damages were in the millions, rather than $1. Perhaps worth including because the litigation took over two decades to resolve, and it easily could have settled sooner. Klein had a finger in this case as well after he purchased the rights to “He’s So Fine.” Bright Tunes Music Corp. v. Harrisongs Music, Ltd. et al, 420 F. Supp 177 (1976); ABKCO Music, Inc. v. Harrisongs Music, et al, 508 F. Supp. 798 (1981), 722 F.2d. 988 (1983), 841 F.2d. 494, 944 F.2d 971 (1991). Good discussion at http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/mysweet.htm and http://www.superseventies.com/sw_mysweetlord.html.

As my brother reminds me, Harrison was extremely bitter about the suit, and wrote “This Song” in response (as well as The Rutles’ “The Pirate Song”). The Chiffons, with a sense of humor, went on to cover “My Sweet Lord.”

By: DrReptile

DrReptile — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 01:30:46 +0000

Correction.
It’s Radley Balko. My bad.

By: DrReptile

DrReptile — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 01:02:32 +0000

And to compete at playlists, at a Cato conference a couple years ago I was asked by Radley Bilko for a list of songs relating to libertarian topics. This is the best I could come up with and it sort of relates to being overlawyered:

FREE

I’m Free-The Who
Stone Free-Jimi Hendrix
I Feel Free-Cream
Freedom Rider-traffic
I’m Free-Rolling Stones
If You Love Somebody Set Them Free-Sting
Free-Stevie Wonder
Free Man In Paris-Joni Mitchell
Free Fallin’-Tom Petty
Love Is Expensive And Free-Fastball
Philadelphia Freedom-Elton John
Set Me Free (Rosa Lee)-Los Lobos
I’m Free-Soup Dragons
Freedom-Yothu Yindi
Free-Phish
Free Ride-Edgar Winters Group
Free Bird-Lynyrd Skynyrd
Keep Rockin’ In The Free World-Neil Young
Freedom-Richie Havens
Chimes of Freedom-Bruce Springsteen
Find The Cost of Freedom-CSNY

By: DrReptile

DrReptile — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 00:56:12 +0000

And the best song, although it doesn’t have any litigation attached to it that I know of, is Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers Guns and Money”

sample verses:

I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Dad, get me out of this

Now I’m hiding in Honduras
I’m a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The s**t has hit the fan

By: DrReptile

DrReptile — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 00:50:27 +0000

As both a long time follower of Overlawyered.com, a Mac fanatic, and music critic without a portfolio, I’d say you’ve hit all my buttons.

The most obvious song missed on your playlist is George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” who was sued for plagarizing the Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine” back in the 70’s. My understanding was that after a lengthy suit and trial, a jury found him guilty but fined him $1

By: Evan

Evan — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 15:03:37 +0000

Great post, Ted. A band that should *not* make the mix is Milli Vanilli. According to Wikipedia, the duo composed of Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus was the only musical group “to have their Grammy Award stripped from them after it was revealed that they had not been involved in the creation of their breakthrough album, Girl You Know It’s True and did not sing in concert.” That led to the inevitable class action, in which those who purchased the album received a refund.

I’m happy to add that I was not among the class members.