Bridgeport Music is a music publishing company founded in Michigan by Armen Boladian in 1969. It controls the

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

s to recordings by George Clinton and

Funkadelic Funkadelic was an American funk rock band formed in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1968 and active until 1982. The band and its sister act Parliament, both led by George Clinton, pioneered the funk music culture of the 1970s.John, Bush. Funkadeli ...

. Bridgeport Music has filed lawsuits for copyright infringement via sampling against hundreds of defendants under the federal copyright statute,

17 U.S.C. In the United States Code, Title 17 outlines its copyright law. It was codified into positive law on July 30, 1947. The latest version is from December 2016. * —Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright * —Copyright Ownership and Transfer * — ...

, leading to them to being often described as a "Sample troll". Among others, Bridgeport has sued for sampling infringements in popular music produced by

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe p ...

N.W.A N.W.A (an abbreviation for Niggaz Wit Attitudes) was an American hip hop group whose members were among the earliest and most significant popularizers and controversial figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, and the group is widely considered ...

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...

and

The Notorious B.I.G. Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop and particularly gangsta ...

- a case in which the jury awarded Bridgeport more than $4 million in damages.

Notable court cases

On May 4, 2001 in ''Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. 11C Music'', 202 F.R.D. 229' (M.D. Tenn 2001), Bridgeport Music filed a lawsuit alleging infringement of its copyrights in several sound recordings and musical compositions through sampling. It was seeking declaratory judgement, injunctive relief, and damages in around 500 different claims against approximately 800 defendants. The court decided that these cases should all be tried separately, which resulted in 477 individual cases. Notable cases include: *

Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films '' Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films'', 410 F.3d 792 (6th Cir. 2005), is a 2005 court case that was important in defining American copyright law for recorded music. The case centered on the 1990 N.W.A. track "100 Miles and Runnin'", which ...

Pharrell Williams v. Bridgeport Music ''Pharrell Williams et al. v Bridgeport Music et al.'', No. 15-56880 (9th Cir. July 11, 2018) is a United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit case concerning copyright infringement of sound recording. In August 2013, Pharrell Williams, ...

* Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Smith * Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Universal-Mca Music Publishing, Inc. * Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Still N the Water Publishing * Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dm Records, Inc. * Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Justin Combs Publishing

Controversy over rights

There has been some controversy over the rights of the George Clinton and Funkadelic catalogs. Clinton himself has claimed that the rights to the musical works were obtained fraudulently, by using a forged document from 1983 dealing with the transfer of the Malbiz catalog of songs.

References

External links

Official Website
{{P-Funk Music publishing companies of the United States Publishing companies established in 1969 Companies based in Michigan

Notable court cases

Controversy over rights

See also

References

External links