Bon Jovi’s $400 Billion Copyright Case Resurfaces
By WENNWednesday, November 11, 2009
BON JOVI’s legal battle over their baseball anthem is far from over - the man who filed a $400 billion plagiarism suit against them last year (08) is dragging the case back to court.
Massachusetts-based musician Samuel Bartley Steele filed papers last October (08) alleging the group copied lyrics from his 2004 song (Man I Really) Love This Team, which was used as the theme tune for his Boston baseball team The Red Sox.
Steele alleges the group’s New Jersey-born frontman Jon Bon Jovi heard the song while campaigning for U.S. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004, and used the track’s lyrics to create hit song I Love This Town - which was later used as a promotional track for Major League Baseball.
A judge dismissed the case in 2008 after Steele’s own musicologist agreed the songs weren’t very similar, but Steele has decided to challenge the decision. He filed an a notice of appeal to the First Circuit Federal Court on Friday (06Nov09).
