1:24-cv-00349 (E.D.N.Y.)
Complaining Work |
Defending Work |
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Duvall Chamberlain “In That Mood”
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Isis Naija Gaston a/k/a Ice Spice “In Ha Mood”
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Comment by Charles Cronin
Yet another spurious music infringement allegation in the mephitic wake of Blurred Lines and its jury’s determination of infringement based not upon substantial similarity of protectable expression but rather a poetically described “constellation” of cherry-picked non-protectable elements shared between the contested works allegedly resulting in a similar “vibe”.
The Complaint (below) makes the verbally perplexing declaration that the defendant’s work is a “forgery” of the plaintiff’s but, more significantly, and unwittingly, provides an exhaustive list of non-protectable conventions, musical and otherwise, of the rap genre. These include allegedly similar titles, styles, tempi, and (shockingly!) “same repetition of ‘in that mood and ‘in ha mood’ three times in first segment of the hook/chorus.
The lame basis for this dispute boils down to the use of three words “in that mood” and the more esoteric “in ha mood” (which I presume might be translated as “in her mood”). We can only hope the New York District Judge assigned this case will be in a bad mood when s/he first encounters it, and swiftly relegates it to the circular file.
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Complaint: PDF