A one-second-long producer tag is at the heart of a new copyright infringement lawsuit filed in US federal court.<\/p>\n
Georgia-based musician and songwriter Jamal Britt<\/strong> is suing producer and songwriter Turbo the Great<\/strong>, along with Warner Chappell Music<\/strong> and numerous labels, over what he says is unauthorized use of the \u201crun that back Turbo\u201d audio clip that Turbo uses as his producer tag.<\/p>\n According to a complaint filed on January 9 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, the tag \u2013 which can be heard here<\/a> \u2013 has appeared in more than 80 \u201cpopular songs.\u201d<\/p>\n Those songs come from artists such as Lil Baby<\/strong>, Gunna<\/strong>, Nicki Minaj<\/strong>, Chris Brown<\/strong>, Moneybagg Yo<\/strong> and many others.<\/p>\n The labels and entertainment companies responsible for releasing the tracks that include the \u201crun that back Turbo\u201d tag are named as defendants in the suit, including Quality Control, Motown Records, Capitol Records, Young Stoner Life Records, 300 Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Chris Brown Entertainment, Young Money Records, Cash Money Records and Republic Records.<\/p>\n According to the complaint, which can be read in full here,<\/a>\u00a0in July 2017, Britt and Turbo (who is identified in the complaint as Chandler Durham) co-created a track called Afghanistan<\/em>.<\/p>\n Britt alleges to have written the lyrics and \u201cmusic elements\u201d of the track, while Turbo \u201ccreated the musical track and\/or beat\u201d for Afghanistan<\/em>, and acted as engineer for the recording session. Britt claims that he vocalized and rapped the lyrics \u201crun that back Turbo\u201d as the introduction to the track, the complaint states.<\/p>\n Since then, \u201cTurbo has unequivocally used an extrapolation of the original work and appropriated it as his own in nearly all of his productions,\u201d the complaint alleges.<\/p>\n Britt \u201cwas never given notice that his voice was being used, never properly credited for his contributions to the songs in question and was never compensated from any of the royalty payments, profits, or other income garnered from the exploitation of his recorded voice,\u201d the complaint asserts.<\/p>\n Among the tracks named in the lawsuit are Drip Too Hard<\/em>, from rappers Lil Baby and Gunna, released in 2018. The track peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n Also named are Never Recover<\/strong> by Lil Baby and Gunna with Drake, a double-Platinum track from 2018; Close Friends<\/em>, a five-times Platinum track by Lil Baby from 2019; She Bumped Her Head<\/em>, a 2020 track by Chris Brown; and Nicki Minaj\u2019s 2019 Barbie Drip<\/em>.<\/p>\n The songs amount to \u201can infringement of [Britt\u2019s] copyright and right of publicity,\u201d the complaint alleges.<\/p>\n It estimates that the songs featuring the \u201crun that back Turbo\u201d tag have generated \u201cin excess of $10 million<\/strong>\u201d in revenue.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of Turbo\u2019s productions give credit to [Britt] and [Britt] has not received any compensation for his contribution to Turbo’s songs to-date.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTurbo failed to obtain [Jamal Britt\u2019s] consent to exclusively transfer or otherwise license any copyright interests in the original work including plaintiff\u2019s voice.\u201d<\/p>\n Claim in Legal complaint filed in US federal court<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n On a number of occasions, Turbo\u00a0 \u201ctransferred, licensed and\/or entered into exclusive producer agreements and songwriter\/co-publishing agreements, and in doing so granted publishers, distributors, record labels, and other entities permission to use the original work,\u201d the complaint continues.<\/p>\n \u201cTurbo failed to obtain [Britt\u2019s] consent to exclusively transfer or otherwise license any copyright interests in the original work including plaintiff\u2019s voice.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, because Turbo has trademarked<\/a> the \u201crun that back Turbo\u201d tag, the lawsuit alleges violations of the Lanham Act, the US law regulating the use of trademarks.<\/p>\n \u201cBy attaching [Britt\u2019s] recorded voice to the sound recordings listed herein, Defendant Durham has created a likelihood of confusion as to the origin of the sound recordings listed herein,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n The lawsuit also lays claim to income earned from touring and other appearances linked to the songs.<\/p>\n The \u201coverwhelming success\u201d of the tracks featuring the producer tag \u201chas provided defendants substantial opportunities to tour and perform around the world,\u201d the complaint claims.<\/p>\n \u201cThe revenue and profits derived from these performances and appearances, among all other revenue and profits, are directly attributable to the success of the infringing works\u2026 Thus, the touring and concert revenue generated by defendants is casually connected to\u201d the allegedly infringed producer tag, the complaint argues.<\/p>\n \u201cThe touring revenue, concert revenue, licensing and synchronization revenues, and related public performance revenue should be disgorged to plaintiff.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment that Britt is the \u201cjoint author\u201d of the songs in question, and that he owns a share of these sound recordings.<\/p>\n It also seeks an accounting of all the income made from those tracks, to determine how much money he would be owed from the sale of the sound recordings,\u00a0 \u201cand from any other use, distribution, or sale of the plaintiff\u2019s songs.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit also seeks damages in an amount to be determined at trial, and reimbursement of court costs and legal fees.<\/p>\n Turbo signed a co-publishing deal<\/a> with Warner Chappell Music in 2019.<\/p>\n The complaint is the latest in a series of court cases where a musician or producer\u2019s relatively small and allegedly unrecognized contribution to a hit song has turned into a potentially large lawsuit.<\/p>\n One such lawsuit involves Dua Lipa<\/strong>\u2019s megahit Levitating<\/em>. In a complaint filed in August of last year, music producer Bosko Kante<\/strong> alleged<\/a> that he didn\u2019t give Levitating<\/em>\u2019s producers the right to use a talkbox vocal line that Kante created on remixes of the song.<\/p>\n
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