On March 8, 2024, Kibler Fowler & Cave’s Entertainment & Intellectual Property Litigation practice group filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of Iceberg Records A/S against members of The Black Eyed Peas, including will.i.am (William Adams), apl.de.ap (Allen Pineda Lindo) and Taboo (Jaime Luis Gomez), Daddy Yankee (Ramon Luis Ayala Rodríguez), Sony Music Entertainment, and others.
As was reported in Billboard and other sources, Iceberg, the Danish record label that owns the rights to “Scatman (ski-ba-bop-ba-dop-bop),” is suing will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo, Daddy Yankee, Sony Music Entertainment, and others, asserting copyright infringement and fraud over their use of Scatman John’s 1995 track in their 2022 song “Bailar Contigo (feat. Daddy Yankee).” Pursuant to a limited license agreed to in October 2022, Iceberg allowed the Black Eyed Peas to use extracts from the composition “Scatman.” Iceberg explicitly warned that the agreement was not a sampling deal, and that a license to sample from the sound recording would require a larger licensing fee. The complaint describes how when “Bailar Contigo” was released in November 2022, it included a sample, not just an interpolation of “Scatman.” While the defendants attempted to manipulate the sound recording slightly to hide their infringement, the work is so strikingly similar to the Scatman John’s song that it could not have been created without using the song’s sound recording. KF&C’s client is seeking damages caused by this copyright infringement and fraud. KF&C’s complaint can be found here.
The KF&C team includes Partners Matt Cave and John Fowler, Counsel Tracy Rane, and Senior Associate Kevin Cammiso.
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