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Lil’ Flip has been hit with a second copyright infringement lawsuit, this time due to alleged unauthorized use of three melodies on his major label debut, Undaground Legend.
The latest round of legal wrangling for the Houston, Texas rapper stems from three songs on the CD, “Texas Boys,” “Make Mama Proud” and “What I Been Through.”
The lawsuit, filed in Federal Court in the Southern District of Texas, claims the melodies were the creation of Tommy L. Granville, a songwriter and music producer based out of Shreveport, Louisiana.
In addition to Lil’ Flip, Suckafree Records, Estelle Douglass Hobbs, Sony Music, Columbia, Loud Records, Lucky Publishing and Hobbs Publishing are all named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks $1.5 million in damages and an unspecified amount for alleged willful infringement of Granville's copyrights.
Undaground Legend has moved over a million copies since it was released in 2002. Lil Flip's song “Sunshine” from his album U Gotta Feel Me, is currently number 43 on Billboard’s Top 100 Singles chart.
Lil' Flip also recently release another mixtape, "Houston We Have a Problem," with DJ Smallz.
In September 2004, NamCo America filed a $10 million dollar lawsuit against Lil’ Flip and Sony, alleging the rapper illegally used copyrighted sounds from the classic video games “Pac-Man” and “Ms. Pac-Man.”
Also in September 2004, The US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that ruled that all samples must be licensed, citing rules established under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.
"If you cannot pirate the whole sound recording, can you 'lift' or 'sample' something less than the whole? Our answer to that question is in the negative," the ruling stated. “Get a license or do not sample.”
Critics and musicians, especially rappers, have often argued fair use, or that the pieces were so small and transformed that the original sample did not need to be cleared.
Source: allhiphop.com
The latest round of legal wrangling for the Houston, Texas rapper stems from three songs on the CD, “Texas Boys,” “Make Mama Proud” and “What I Been Through.”
The lawsuit, filed in Federal Court in the Southern District of Texas, claims the melodies were the creation of Tommy L. Granville, a songwriter and music producer based out of Shreveport, Louisiana.
In addition to Lil’ Flip, Suckafree Records, Estelle Douglass Hobbs, Sony Music, Columbia, Loud Records, Lucky Publishing and Hobbs Publishing are all named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks $1.5 million in damages and an unspecified amount for alleged willful infringement of Granville's copyrights.
Undaground Legend has moved over a million copies since it was released in 2002. Lil Flip's song “Sunshine” from his album U Gotta Feel Me, is currently number 43 on Billboard’s Top 100 Singles chart.
Lil' Flip also recently release another mixtape, "Houston We Have a Problem," with DJ Smallz.
In September 2004, NamCo America filed a $10 million dollar lawsuit against Lil’ Flip and Sony, alleging the rapper illegally used copyrighted sounds from the classic video games “Pac-Man” and “Ms. Pac-Man.”
Also in September 2004, The US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that ruled that all samples must be licensed, citing rules established under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.
"If you cannot pirate the whole sound recording, can you 'lift' or 'sample' something less than the whole? Our answer to that question is in the negative," the ruling stated. “Get a license or do not sample.”
Critics and musicians, especially rappers, have often argued fair use, or that the pieces were so small and transformed that the original sample did not need to be cleared.
Source: allhiphop.com