Sweet Brown Has Her Voice Autotuned, Sues 'iTunes' And Others For $15 Million
from the not-likely-to-go-over-well dept
Eric Wisti alerts us a case we hadn't heard about before. You may recall a few years back how the Bed Intruder song became a huge hit, after the Autotune the News guys took an offbeat TV interview and turned it into a song. They, famously, provided some of the proceeds from that song to the interviewee, Antoine Dodson. Apparently, last year, a radio show called the Bob Rivers show sought to do something similar with an interview with a woman in Oklahoma, who goes by the name Sweet Brown (real name: Kimberly Wilkins), about a fire in her apartment complex. Here's the original interview.There was also an attempt at summary judgment that failed, when Brown failed to show that she had served "iTunes." Of course, even if that happens, Apple has plenty of reasonable defenses, as a third party service provider, for why it's not liable.
All that said, there is something about the video that feels exploitative. The Autotune the News guys made sure that Antoine Dodson got something out of his unexpected fame, and you can see why it might have made good general sense to have cut Brown in on any proceeds, even if the Bob Rivers show was not legally required to do so.
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Filed Under: autotuned, lawsuits, sweet brown
Companies: apple
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Nigel
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No
How? She said something in public, and the public ran with it.
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Re: No
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Why would a state law claim necessarily belong in federal court?
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Mar 21st, 2013 @ 11:45am
Diversity jurisdiction is the typical reason.
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Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Mar 21st, 2013 @ 11:45am
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Awesome
Better yet, run with it! Do performances!
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Re: Awesome
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Greed
The fable of The Dog and Its Reflection comes to mind.
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Re: Greed
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Here are a few of Bob's famous hits: {Note: A lot of people think Weird Al wrote/sung these.. he didn't]
Dirty Deeds done with Sheep: You will never listen to AC/DC the same EVER again {Warning: New Zealanders should refrain from clicking]
Cats in the Kettle: Garfield and Cat lovers will howl
Windows 95 Sucks : This is parodied from the original Rolling Stones song that was done for Win 95. YES Bob Rivers has been doing this for decades and I loved it then too ;)
Bisexual: Parody of the Queen song Bicycle (no fat bottomed girls to be seen either) A Queen parody
He also has done a major "American Pie Eulogy" song (Parody of original Don Maclean) that totally bagged Madonna's interpretation of the song that peeved Madonna's management no end [not on Youtube but on Bob's website - below]
PMS : Lock up ya wives and daughters before you hear this ;P Another AC/DC parody that's awesome
and my favourite of all time: 99 Luft Balloon's Parody : I'll let you all click and learn the parody name and song: *BFG* And it works with his other song here
For more full length songs (there are over 300] with lyrics for all, go to Bob's website and click on the Twisted Tunes link on left hand side. Have fun!
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