OFF BEAT: George Clinton can't stop sale of funkadelic songs
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While Hillary's fate may still be up in the air, another famous Clinton just suffered a crushing defeat on the music copyright front.
Funkadelic George Clinton cannot stop the sale of songs including “One Nation Under a Groove,” “Hardcore Jollies,” “Uncle Jam Wants You” and “The Electric Spanking of War Babies” by a court-ordered receiver as a result of a Monday ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle.
Ironically, the court ruled in favor of Mr. Clinton's lawyers, the firm Hendricks & Lewis P.L.L.C., which had represented the artist between 2005 and 2008 in his copyright and other legal battles with former business associates and claimed it is still owed $1.8 million of a $3.3 million legal bill.
The 9th Circuit decision affirmed an earlier U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington order confirming an arbitration award of $1.8 million and entering a judgment for Hendricks, which then moved for an order authorizing the sale of Mr. Clinton's songs to secure the judgment.
Mr. Clinton appealed Monday's Circuit Court decision on copyright grounds but lost again as he was found to be an “employee for hire” when he created the songs in the 1970s for Warner Brothers, making the record company “… the initial author and owner of the (song's) Masters ...” according to 9th Circuit Judge Morgan Christen.
