The Estate of Bertha V. James has filed suit in California against Lionsgate Entertainment and Tyler Perry, claiming he incorporated a full verse from the song “The Golden Hour,” (a derivative work of James’ 1950 song “When I Think of the Goodness of Jesus”) into Perry’s 2008 movie release, Madea Goes To Jail. Not your traditional stole the song kind of claim, James’ Estate alleges that a chorus of the song was turned into a monologue that was delivered by the main character “Madea,” after she is given leniency for her repeated criminal behavior.

Practice Note: Many clients believe the urban myth that if you take only some portion of a song, or repurpose it in a different way (like turning it into a monologue), you are not committing copyright infringement and have no duty to the song’s writer.

This entry was posted by Tsan Abrahamson on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 11:11 am and is filed under Copyrights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.