As key evidence vanishes, ‘Peas’ prevail
A U.S. district judge in Santa Ana has granted summary judgment for defendants Williams Adams Jr. and members of the Black Eyed Peas band, their producers, publishers and record company and against plaintiff-songwriter Bryan Pringle in a copyright infringement dispute. The court ruled that the Peas’ 2009 song, I Gotta Feeling, did not infringe plaintiff’s 1998 tune, Take a Dive, nor his derivative work, Take a Drive (Dance Version). And the judge found that Pringle, though his attorneys were warned to preserve evidence potentially crucial to defending the case, later would claim these key materials had vanished and were unavailable. The court said that an important basis for Pringle’s claim, an eight-bar guitar twang sequence in Take a Dive (Dance Version), lacked standing. A previous post on iptrademarkattorney.com compares the two musical works in this suit; click to listen to audio clips and read the initial complaint. In 1998, Pringle registered a CD, Dead Beat Club: 1998, containing an original of Take a Dive and other works with the U.S. Copyright Office. Then in November, 2010, he filed an infringement suit after the Peas released I Gotta Feeling. He also sought registration from the U.S. Copyright Office for both the sound recording of Take a Dive (Dance Version) and the music of a guitar twang sequence. The sound recording was registered but officials denied registration to the music, saying it lacked original authorship. The court said that because Pringle’s registration for the...
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