Slate has a one-sided piece on Brideport Music Inc. and its negative impact on the music community. This is the same company that gained notoriety for its winning case against Dimension Films & NWA. For those unfamiliar, this ruling was significant because it made it easier for copyright holders to win suits for copyright infringement, no matter how relatively minor the sampling appeared to be. Notice I said copyright holder, not necessarily the artist. It’s no coincidence that HipHop production changed dramatically over the past decade as sampling-based production proved unprofitable because of suits like this but c’mon, Bridegport is not the only company doing this. It is one amongst many. Majors have been cashing in for a long time and it could be argued they acquire their copyrights under questionable means also. In addition, do we really know if Boladian stole the copyright from George Clinton? Link (via) (don’t miss the related video interview with George Clinton where he discusses the copyright issue)
Sample Trolls — companies that steal copyrights from musicians and then threaten to sue everyone who ever sampled those musicians’ work. The progenitor is a crook named Armen Boladian who forged George Clinton’s signature on an assignment of copyright and has now become a one-man lawsuit factory who threatens legal action against the entire hip-hop world (avid Clinton samplers) unless they pay him tribute.
