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USA Today
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
George Clinton sues former business partner for 'fraudulently' acquiring 90% of music
George Clinton sues former business partner for 'fraudulently' acquiring 90% of music George Clinton is suing his former business partner for "fraudulently" acquiring the rights to nearly 90% of his work. The Parliament-Funkadelic singer-songwriter filed the copyright lawsuit in the Northern District of Florida on Tuesday against music producer Armen Boladian and his entertainment companies, including Bridgeport Music. Clinton claims Boladian has acquired the rights to his and Parliament-Funkadelic's music – including the hit songs "Atomic Dog," "Flashlight," "One Nation Under A Groove" and "We Want the Funk (Tear the Roof Off)" – by "adding fictitious songwriters to dilute Clinton's share in songwriters royalties," urging Clinton to sign blank contracts and signing agreements on his behalf without his consent to claim ownership of his music. Boladian's reps could not be reached for comment. Clinton and Boladian worked together from 1968 through 1975, and 1981 through 1990, according to the suit. Boladian and his "one-man" companies are most notable in the music world for their own frequent lawsuits for copyright infringement via sampling of Clinton's music and previously being referred to as a "copyright troll," according to the filing. The companies "employ little to no staff and have no assets other than copyright," the filing alleges. Boladian is "collecting royalties from Clinton's catalog while fraudulently denying Clinton tens of millions of dollars," the filing reads. While Boladian and his several entertainment companies are "suing other producers and artists who sample songs to which (they) fraudulently acquired rights," they are also failing to provide an accounting of royalties owed to the funk bandleader, according to the lawsuit. Boladian and Bridgeport Music have sued hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z, Public Enemy, The Notorious B.I.G. and N.W.A. for copyright infringement. The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient says he has "suffered and continues to suffer significant economic injury" as a result. Clinton's team claims Boladian has stolen the masters or exploited other "young, gifted artists" and alleges there may be a racial component to Boladian's motivations. "Boladian expressed his views that Black artists lacked the education and intelligence to understand issues such as copyright infringement and legal proceedings," the lawsuit claims. "Accordingly, he felt emboldened and entitled to defraud artists like Clinton." Clinton is requesting a jury trial. Clinton and Boladian have had multiple legal disputes as far back as 1981. The singer-songwriter has for years claimed Boladian stole his copyrights, including in his 2014 memoir, "Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?," for which Boladian brought a defamation lawsuit. In 2021, Clinton defeated the lawsuit, with the jury finding that the legendary musician did not defame the producer.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
George Clinton Files $100 Million Copyright Lawsuit Against Former Business Partner
George Clinton has filed a $100 million copyright lawsuit against former business partner Armen Boladian and his Bridgeport Music company, alleging that Boladian fraudulently obtained copyrights to approximately 90 percent of his catalog. In the suit, filed today in Florida District Court and reviewed by Variety, Clinton claims that Boladian and Bridgeport, as well as Westbound Records, Nine Records, Southfield Music and Eastbound Records, unlawfully continue to profit off of his music. Clinton held a press conference outside of the Apollo Theatre to announce the suit along with his attorney Ben Crump and fellow counsel, stating that he intends to reclaim ownership of his catalog to provide generational wealth to his family. More from Variety Songwriters Hall of Fame Class of 2025: George Clinton, Doobie Brothers, Ashley Gorley, More Eddie Murphy to Play George Clinton in Biopic From 'Dreamgirls' Director Bill Condon 'The Masked Singer' Reveals Identities of Gopher and Venus Flytrap: Here's Who They Are 'These songs we're talking about is my history,' said Clinton. 'I have to fight for them, I have to make sure that I did not do all of this my whole life and have my family here, not get what's due to them, what they inherit. We don't have a chance to pass down 40 acres and mules to our families. We do not have the copyrights for the songs. So I'm here along with Ben and partners to make sure that Armen does not get what we worked so hard for.' The suit claims that Boladian, Clinton's longtime business partner, withheld millions of dollars in royalties and engaged in deceptive and fraudulent practices over the years. Clinton alleges that between 1982 and 1985, Boladian fabricated multiple versions of agreements designating additional rights to his catalog and added fake names and pseudonyms to copyright registrations to dilute shares in his royalties. In the past, Boladian has been litigious over commercial use of Clinton's music, filing hundreds of lawsuits in 2001 against musicians who sampled his work. The suit filed today notes that Clinton was not included as a plaintiff in those lawsuits and did not receive any of the millions Boladian got from them. Boladian did not immediately respond to Variety's request for comment. Clinton and Boladian have been locked in legal warfare for years, with Clinton losing a copyright lawsuit against him in 2001 after a Florida judge ruled that music written from 1976-83 belonged to Boladian's Bridgeport Music. In 2021, Boladian lost a defamation suit against Clinton over claims that the musician made in his 2014 autobiography 'Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?: A Memoir.' In the book, Clinton claimed that Boladian had 'fabricated documents,' 'robbed' him of his songs and 'fraudulently backdated and altered' contracts between them. 'I will continue to speak truth to power and to fight against the forces that have separated so many songwriters from their music,' Clinton said at his press conference. 'I encourage all my fellow artists to investigate, interrogate, litigate, unseal, reveal. If we don't get this right, then they win, and I refuse to let them win. This is about my family and the family of the other legacy artists and us being able to give generational wealth to our family from our intellectual property.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More What's Coming to Disney+ in March 2025
