Black Eyed Peas being sued for stealing music without permission

November 3, 2010 - Looks like the Black Eyed Peas are in for another lawsuit. In 1999, Bryan Pringle submitted this song, "Take A Drive" to Interscope Records, the same label as Will I.Am and Fergie. Back then, almost nobody heard the track. Today, there is a very similar track all over airwaves, everywhere.

Musician Bryan Pringle is now accusing someone of stealing his track "Take a Dive", and end up transitioning the hook into the pop group's smash hit, "I Gotta Feeling." Bryan copyrighted the song in 1998, and then sent his unreleased demo along to many record companies, including Interscope, EMI and UMG.

The group has been engaging in what the lawsuit calls “a pattern and practice of intentional copyright infringement with respect to the unlawful copying of songs of unknown or lesser-known artists”.Bryan is now seeking damages, net profits from the sale of the song, and future credits and royalty payments.

Whenever a DJ or producer uses a sample in a song these days, laws mandate that the original artist gives permission and gets credit, after a negotiation of whatever that credit may be. Both the owner of the song and the artist on the sample are allowed to reap the benefits. However, it looks as if The Black Eyed Peas have taken some costly shortcuts.

Here is the track in question:



Here is The Black Eyed Peas track:



This is the group’s second lawsuit like this and we hope the courts figure everything out. The first one, , was recently just re-filed by musician Phoenix Phenom, with their original track in question called, "Boom Boom Dynamite."

DJ Kenny Casanova dropped a line to MC Hammer, a rapper from the early 80s who found great success in legally using a sample from Rick James' mega-hit "Superfreak" with, "U can't Touch This." MC Hammer stated that he had not heard of the lawsuit and requested a link to the track in question. After that we asked him what he thought and he stated, "Will I.Am is my very close brother." That was it. LOL!

Anyhow, check it out for yourself and let us know what you think!