Bridgeport Music is amusic publishing company founded in Michigan by Armen Boladian in 1969.[1] It controls thecopyrights to recordings byGeorge Clinton andFunkadelic. Bridgeport Music has filed lawsuits for copyright infringement viasampling against hundreds of defendants under the federal copyright statute,17 U.S.C., leading to them to being often described as a "Sample troll".[2] Among others, Bridgeport has sued for sampling infringements in popular music produced byPublic Enemy,N.W.A,Jay-Z andThe Notorious B.I.G. - a case in which the jury awarded Bridgeport more than $4 million in damages.[3]
On May 4, 2001 inBridgeport Music, Inc. v. 11C Music, 202 F.R.D. 229' (M.D. Tenn 2001), Bridgeport Music filed a lawsuit alleging infringement of its copyrights in several sound recordings and musical compositions through sampling. It was seeking declaratory judgement, injunctive relief, and damages in around 500 different claims against approximately 800 defendants.[4] The court decided that these cases should all be tried separately, which resulted in 477 individual cases.[5] Notable cases include:
There has been some controversy over the rights of the George Clinton and Funkadelic catalogs. Clinton himself has claimed that the rights to the musical works were obtained fraudulently, by using a forged document from 1983 dealing with the transfer of the Malbiz catalog of songs.[6]
On March 11 2025, Clinton filed a $100 million lawsuit againstArmen Boladian,Bridgeport Music,Westbound Records, Nine Records, Southfield Music and Eastbound Records.
