Music Firms File Suit Over Lewd Holiday Songs
dailynews.yahoo.com
Wednesday May 24 11:27 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The owners of the copyrights to some of
America's most popular holiday songs sued a musical
production company on Tuesday for selling such lewd tunes
as ``Rudolph the Deep Throat Reindeer'' and ``Frosty the Pervert.''
The suit, filed in U.S. federal court in Manhattan,
claimed that Scott Gordon and his Party on Parody
Productions (POPP) used the copyrighted works
without authorization and sold them on tapes and
compact discs entitled ``Matt Rogers' Rated X Mas.''
The plaintiffs, which include Haven Gillespie Music Publishing
Co. and Warner/Chappell Music Co., allege that the songs
are not parodies as claimed by POPP.
``They are simply unauthorized exploitations of plaintiffs' famous
holiday songs for cynical commercial gain,
with the lyrics
of the original works replaced by lewd lyrics,'' the suit alleged.
POPP began manufacturing and selling the music in 1998 and
now distributes over the Internet through
Amazon.com and other retail distributors, the suit alleged.
``Rated X Mas'' contains eight songs, seven of which are based
entirely on music from copyrighted works, the suit alleged. The
plaintiffs hold the copyrights for the music in question, which
includes ``Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town,'' ''Frosty the Snowman''
and ``I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.''
The suit gives examples of graphic lyrics that turn the happy
melodies into tunes about Santa's sexual encounter with Mommy and
Rudolph's life as a transvestite. |
