Hendricks & Lewis, a law firm that represented George Clinton from 2005 to 2008, previously said that Clinton owed them $1.8 million. The two parties have been going back and forth, battling in court.
A judge had authorized the involuntary sale of four of Clinton’s songs: “One Nation Under a Groove,” “Hardcore Jollies,” “Uncle Jam Wants You”, and “The Electric Spanking of War Babies.” The money from the sale would go to Hendricks & Lewis.
Clinton appealed this decision, saying that copyright law prevented the involuntary sale. However, the copyright on the songs was filed as “works made for hire” by Warner Bros. Therefore, Clinton isn’t legally considered to be the author.
On June 23rd the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals filed their ruling…
Your headline is incorrect, they are not forcing him to sell songs, they are forcing the sale of master recordings. You are a music industry news site, and this is music business 101.
Cocaine is one hell of a drug.
Seems like it’s actually the four Warner Funkadelic albums “One Nation Under a Groove,” “Hardcore Jollies,” “Uncle Jam Wants You”, and “The Electric Spanking of War Babies” and all the songs on them, not just the four songs by those names.
Thank You! Sheesh…
It can and will happen inside the music business ten times platinum with ten million sold and no checks, no money and no answers. And even if you own all your rights–never having placed your signature on anything, they still trying to get you. I got kicked out a one billion dollar cash management account on disability and I’m not even a celebrity; I’m super pissed !
You know the difference between songs and recordings, right? Misleading article.
Songs are rarely created as “works made for hire.”
A quick search of copyright.gov catalog shows that these songs aren’t “works made for hire.”
I believe you meant to say the sound recordings of those songs are “works made for hire.”
Sound recordings are registered as “works made for hire” all the time even when they don’t fit the legal definition.
….also the court ruling clearly says sound recording.
Aaaaahhhh, the learned editors of Digital Music News – where the uninformed get their information about the music industry – once again with a grossly inappropriate and misleading headline followed up by basic facts, about a VERY important distinction, completely wrong.
And this is where people actually come to try to LEARN about what’s going on?!?!?!
*pee shiver*
What a huge slap in the face and a complete black eye for the artist, This is why most artist choose to be independent and free wow”
look to circuit courts rules
ain’t no justice. drugs or whatever, george deserves far better. he is a god
Just say the word George I will put these fools in the check out line
Often in the music biz things need to be settled without lawyers being involved to get the proper outcome.
People are able to hide behind lawyers. When there’s no one to hide behind people tend to make the right decisions.
Lawyers themselves are the ones who forget things like this the most often. It sounds like they need a reminder.
SHAKIN’ MY HEAD ON THIS ONE THEY DON’T REALLY EVEN CARE ABOUT THE SONGS…JUST WANT TO KEEP MY SUPERFUNKY HERO DOWN….ALL ABOUT THE INDUSTRY..NOSE’S NOT BEING ON THE ONE WITH THE FUNK…AND THEY LOVE KAOS…P FUNK DON’T BRIG THAT …SO THEY DON’T WANT IT..TO BE MAINSTREAM
What the Funk is going on in this Funked up society in which we live? This is exactly what happens when you don’t take personal responsibility for registering your own Shhhh, it makes so sense that this crap is happening to someone who contributed so much to the music industry. But, then again, as someone said earlier, it is business 101. Shhhh, it is crap like this that drives me to make sure I registered my own catalog, so that people like Warner Bros can’t stick it to me, like they stuck it to George. I guess America really does eat its own.