Cohen | Okediji | O'Rourke | Loren
Copyright in a Global Information Economy

Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films LLC
230 F. Supp. 2d 830 (M.D. Tenn. 2002) - full text opinion

What the court refers to as DNSM et al is better known as the rap group N.W.A. The track 100 Miles and Runnin' was from the album of the same name, the group's third. The George Clinton song Get Off Your Ass and Jam was a part of the Let's Take It to the Stage album. You can listen to recordings of both songs here.

The movie in which this song appears, I Got the Hook Up, was widely panned by critics, and barely made over $10 million at the box office.

Bridgeport Music appealed to the Sixth Circuit, which subsequently ruled in their favor. The court found that because a sound recording, and not merely a composition, had been copied, there was no room for a de minimis exception and therefore infringement had occurred. As a result, the soundtrack to the movie does not contain N.W.A.'s song.

 

 

 

 

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