Thanks to Eleanor for submitting this one
After some quick googling it looks like this one was in and out of court. I’m sure The Black Eyed Peas‘ team of lawyers outnumbered Pringle’s 100 to 1 on this. I had a hard time finding any info about Pringle so if anyone has anything please post in the comments.
Bryan Pringle in 2010 sued the Black Eyed Peas and several co-defendants, including record labels EMI April Music Inc. and Interscope Records; French DJ David Guetta, who co-produced several Black Eyed Peas songs; and several music publishing companies.
Pringle contended that the hip-hop group had ripped off “Take a Dive,” which was copyrighted in 1998, particularly a “guitar twang” melody, or “hook,” that he added in a dance version of the song he composed in 1999. However, Pringle could not obtain copyright registration for the dance version because it was deemed to not be substantially different from the original, according to his complaint.
– read more at law360.com
I also found this more recent info. I’m not sure how these legal fees work but all I can seriously think is WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IS THIS WHAT PEOPLE ARE SPENDING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON??!
LOS ANGELES (CN) – A federal judge awarded Black Eyed Peas songwriter will.i.am $1 million in costs and attorney’s fees for defending against a claim that the band infringed copyright in the 2009 hit, “I Gotta Feeling.”
The judge awarded another $1.3 million in attorney’s fees to the band’s producer, and $50,000 to the record label.
– Read More HERE
You may not remember this, but Arthur Delgado submitted this two years ago to the day.
https://www.thatsongsoundslike.com/2011/02/23/snow-patrol-vs-theblack-eyed-peas/comment-page-1/#comment-2245
Heh. Well that’s silly. I even replied to him! I guess I should’ve posted this then!!
I think you might have done a similar thing with Flo Rida vs Katy Perry.
Will.i.am – It’s My Birthday vs. A.R. Rahman – Urvasi Urvasi
How did they not settle for something? I mean, this is worse than “sounds like”: it’s an exact copy. The worst part is that they didn’t even steal it to make a GOOD song.
I have found Walk Hand in Hand was first recorded by Denny Vaughan (1956), even before Andy Williams, Vera Lynn and Tony Martin, who had the biggest hit with it, according to Wikipedia.
http://www.secondhandsongs.com/work/118891/all#nav-entity.
Sorry, I’ve attached the wrong comment here. What I meant to say was that they aren’t good songwriters, so they need people to sample. Most of the time the song that samples is inferior as the ‘artist’ doesn’t know how to build on the sample, but sometimes they do and I guess the same goes for all derivative works.
Kelly, I’m guessing it’s because the Black Eyed Peas have a LOT more money than Pringle to fight it in court.
It seems BEP are inconsistent in crediting their sources and asking permission. I don’t know if it has anything to do with how well known the songs they sample are, or not, but how is it easier to get away with using a sample without permission if they don’t credit it? The original artist will notice when they hear it anyway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Eyed_Peas