George Clinton has lost the rights to four of his songs after being ordered to hand the copyright over as payment of a $1million debt.
Clinton owed the money to his former lawyers, the Hendricks & Lewis law firm, who represented him between 2005 and 2008. In 2010, Hendricks & Lewis won a $1.5million case against Clinton after claiming he had failed to pay back their fees but a new court case found that Clinton only paid back $340,000 of that amount. Subsequently, a federal judge ordered that Clinton must hand over the copyrights to four of his songs in lieu of payment.
The songs in question were ‘Hardcore Jollies’, ‘The Electric Spanking Of War Babies’, ‘Uncle Jam Wants You’ and ‘One Nation Under A Groove‘. TMZ reports that Hendricks & Lewis will be able to sell or use Clinton’s music however it wants. However, once they have made $1.5million from the songs the copyrights return to Clinton.
In 2011, George Clinton became involved in a lawsuit with Black Eyed Peas after accusing them of using his music without permission.
Pic credit: Guy Eppel