George Clinton Loses Court Case, Copyright To 4 Songs

George Clinton is through with his court troubles, for now, but to get out of debt, the funk master and wild stage performer has lost a court case against his former lawyers, who sued him for money owed in back payments. Unfortunately, without over a million dollars in quick cash on hand, the Parliament/ Funkadelic songwriter had to give up the copyright to four of his songs.

The story is pretty straightforward. Past legal troubles forced Clinton to lawyer up, and from 2005-2008 he was represented by the Hendricks & Lewis law firm. In 2010, the firm sued Clinton, stating the musician owed them $1.5 million in payments. Reports indicate that the 71-year-old only paid back $340,000 of the amount and back to court the two groups went. According to TMZ, a judge forced Clinton to hand over the copyrights to four of his songs.

As the deal goes, Hendricks & Lewis now own the rights to “Hardcore Jollies, “The Electric Spanking of War Babies,” “Uncle Jam Wants You,” and “One Nation Under A Groove.” The firm gets to keep the copyrights and use them however they wish until all of the money owed to those involved has entered the firm's coffers. Once their money is made, the copyrights to the songs will return to the P-Funk singer and songwriter, so it’s not the worst punishment in the world. If you hear “One Nation Under A Groove” randomly popping up into commercials and TV shows far more than normal in the future, you’ll know the culprit.