Bottom Of The Barrel

I love this 400 billion dollar lawsuit

Chelsea City Council front man Bart Steele is suing because he claims Bon Jovi's song I Love This Town infringes on his copy written song (Man I Really) Love This Team. Steele's song, which is an ode to the Boston Red Sox written in 2004, contains the flowing lyrics:

Now, get up off your seats,
Everybody scream,
Man I really love this team

Steele claims that Jon Bon Jovi had to have heard his song while campaigning in Boston for John Kerry in 2004. Ok. While on the other hand, Bon Jovi's song has this line:

That's why I, love this town

Named in the 400 billion dollar lawsuit are Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. and Time Warner Corporation. Other defendants include Jon Bongiovi, Richard Sambora, William Falcone, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Fox Television Networks, Major League Baseball & MLB Productions, A&E/AETV, Bon Jovi, AEG Live, Mark Shimmel Music, Vector Management, Island Records & Island Def Jam Records, Aggressive Music & Sony ATV Tunes, Bon Jovi Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Universal Polygram, Pretty Blue Songs, and The Bigger Picture Cinema Co, as well as the owners of every ballpark that the ad at issue was played in, and all of Time Warner's Networks that played the ad in more than 74 countries around the world promoting defendants MLB and Bon Jovi. I guess when your going swing for the fences, you should really swing for the fences.

Back in august, Steele has "restated" his issue and now it is not a stolen lyric but rather that MLB and TBS stolen the idea of his song and used his lyrics to create this promotion:



I can see some of his logic but I'm not sure I can make the leap from his song and his reported shopping of it to the Red Sox and MLB to Bon Jovi recording a song that happens to get used for playoff baseball. I suppose, like most larege scare lawsuits, scatter the blame around enough and some of the companies will pay him, I mean settle this matter out of court.

Labels: Music, Red Sox

posted by TheWino @ 3:08 PM