Black Eyed Peas Hit With New Plagiarism Lawsuit

Bryan Pringle filed papers in federal court in Santa Ana, California on Thursday (28Oct10) alleging the group based their chart-topping tune on his track Take a Dive.

The musician says he copyrighted his single in 1998 and submitted demo material to Interscope Records, UMG Recordings and EMI over a period of 10 years. He alleges the music executives admitted receiving the demos, but had no interest in signing him as an artist.

Pringle's case comes on the same day a suit against the group dating back to January (10) was refiled; musician Phoenix Phenom launched a copyright infringement case against the band, alleging the rhythm and lyrics from her track Boom Dynamite were copied in their hit Boom Boom Pow.

The documents for both cases, which are being handled by the same law firm, allege UMG Recordings, Interscope Records and members of the Black Eyed Peas engaged in "a pattern and practice of intentional copyright infringement with respect to the unlawful copying of songs of unknown or lesser-known artists".

The suit seek damages, including all net profits received by the defendants as a result of the two songs, as well as future credits and royalty payments.