Notorious BIG album sales halted

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http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/03/19/big-album-ruling.html

A judge has stopped sales of the late Notorious B.I.G’s album Ready to Die after a jury decided the title track sampled another song without permission.

The jury at the court in Nashville, Tenn. on Friday awarded $4.2 million US in damages to the two music companies that own the rights to the recording of the 1992 song Singing in the Morning by the Ohio Players.

“We’ve just been battling this for such a long time,” said Armen Boladian, owner of both companies. “We knew we were right.”

The judge’s ruling also affects internet downloads and radio play of the album and title song by Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace.

Boladian brought charges against Bad Boy Entertainment head and producer Sean (Diddy) Combs, who produced the album.

“We think [the verdict] is without merit,” said Jay Bowen, a lawyer representing Combs and his companies.

Wallace, also known as Biggie Smalls, shot to fame in the early 1990s after being taken on by Combs. The New York rapper’s two albums – the breakthrough Ready to Die and the posthumous Life After Death – sold nearly eight million copies in the United States.

Wallace was 24 when he was shot and killed in Los Angeles in 1997. His slaying remains unsolved and his family has long argued that a rogue L.A. police officer was involved.

The family’s wrongful death lawsuit against the city and its police department was cut short last July after a judge declared a mistrial when it was revealed that a police detective concealed information linking an officer to the crime.

The Los Angeles police have launched a new investigation into the murder.

― deej.. (deej..), Sunday, 19 March 2006 21:28 (twenty years ago)

Those darn samplers, when will they ever learn! It's so good that the law has finally stepped in!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 19 March 2006 21:40 (twenty years ago)

Anyone know where the guitar (the main sample, really) in "Ready to Die" comes from? I don't think it's the Ohio Players...

― JoB (JoB), Sunday, 19 March 2006 22:22 (twenty years ago)

SHOULD 3X#CPT0rrr HIRE A "STEALTH" MARKETOR?
-- detoxyDancer (evi...), November 30th, 2005 6:03 PM. (sexyDancer) (later)

-- cutty (holle...), December 4th, 2005.

― lf (lfam), Sunday, 19 March 2006 23:07 (twenty years ago)

SNIP

― Biggie Smalls : shot to fame (blunt), Sunday, 19 March 2006 23:35 (twenty years ago)

YSI?

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Monday, 20 March 2006 01:28 (twenty years ago)

has dancehall been sued yet for entire albums based on a rhythm? Honestly curious.

― beat fascist, Monday, 20 March 2006 08:21 (twenty years ago)

4.2 is nothing next to the $ the record companies have made, and will continue to make off Ready to Die.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 20 March 2006 17:39 (twenty years ago)

can someone halt all reggaeton album sales plz?

― R.I.P. Concrete Octopus ]-`: is a guy with a belly button piercing (ex machina), Monday, 20 March 2006 17:44 (twenty years ago)

bf -- you do realize that riddim albums are usually put out by the owners of the riddim, right!?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 20 March 2006 17:56 (twenty years ago)

not to mention that American copyright law doesn't apply in Jamaica?

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 20 March 2006 18:02 (twenty years ago)

why now?

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Monday, 20 March 2006 18:26 (twenty years ago)

because its another country?

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 20 March 2006 18:34 (twenty years ago)

This seems as good a place to any to announce that I saw a woman on the train the other day who looked EXACTLY like Biggie. Like right down to the cheek pigmentation. So much so that my sequence of thoughts went like

1.) Holy crap dude it's Biggie! This is my best celebrity sighting ever!
2.) Does he seriously think putting on a woman's coat and hat is sufficiently "incognito?"
3.) I mean, he's gotta take better steps than that, especially what with being dead and everything.
4.) WAIT HOLY SHIT YOU MORON, BIGGIE IS DEAD!
5.) OMIGOD THIS REALLY IS THE AWESOMEST CELEBRITY SIGHTING EVER.
6.) Maybe those Elvis people are right. Maybe Tupac isn't the alive one.
7.) HOLD ON THAT'S TUPAC SITTING NEXT TO HIM.
8.) No wait that's an elderly Asian woman.
9.) Wait.
10.) Hold on. Let's think this through.
11.) Okay wait so that's just a woman, isn't it.
12.) A woman who looks exactly like Biggie.
13.) Oh man, poor her.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:11 (twenty years ago)

13 Reasons Why I Love Her

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:12 (twenty years ago)

Copyright laws are subject to international agreements--it's not like pirated Chinese DVDs are legal because they're made in China.

And also, I imagine he was thinking of something along the lines of the Cure riddim, which is built around a sample, no?

― Eppy (Eppy), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:27 (twenty years ago)

I am currently listening to a free copy of Ready to Die which I acquired via nefarious means.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 20 March 2006 20:09 (twenty years ago)

sample vs. "interpolation" fite.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 20 March 2006 20:19 (twenty years ago)

cure riddim isn't built on a sample

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 20 March 2006 20:22 (twenty years ago)

SHOULD 3X#CPT0rrr HIRE A "STEALTH" MARKETOR?
-- detoxyDancer (evi...), November 30th, 2005 6:03 PM. (sexyDancer) (later)
-- cutty (holle...), December 4th, 2005.

-- lf (lfamula...), March 19th, 2006 6:07 PM. (lfam)

hmmm....

http://community.livejournal.com/sung_tongs/24878.html
http://community.livejournal.com/deadhills/28411.html

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Monday, 20 March 2006 20:46 (twenty years ago)

7.) HOLD ON THAT'S TUPAC SITTING NEXT TO HIM.
8.) No wait that's an elderly Asian woman.
9.) Wait.

OMG

― Dan (How I Wish I'd Been There) Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 20 March 2006 21:19 (twenty years ago)

"the 1992 song Singing in the Morning by the Ohio Players."

1992?

― mucho, Monday, 20 March 2006 23:43 (twenty years ago)

how much are you paying those spammers?

[info]blueburningsun
LINK DOESN'T WORK

[info]reedkillsyou
I thought this was the weakest release of theirs yet.

― meth lab for doug flutie (sanskrit), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 01:01 (twenty years ago)

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