News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

April 21, 2008

legal

Judge opines rap lawsuit has no rhyme, reason

Posted Apr. 21, ’08, 8:04 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Legal

Judge Lynn HughesThat was a close one. It seemed perhaps that Apple was on the brink of an all-out war with rap mogul J Prince who, if you remember, named the company in a defamation suit last December, along with BET and parent company Viacom. The assertion? An episode of BET’s American Gangster labeled Prince and his employee Thomas Randle as “murderers.”

Prince wanted to prevent the episode from being shown on air or downloaded via iTunes, but U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes (pictured) tossed the case out on its ear, calling the photo in question—which depicted Prince and Randle with jailed gang leader Larry Hoover—“a broadcast of accurate pictures of their social choices.”

Man, that is street. Personally, I know pretty much nothing about Prince and Randle, and while I imagine that being called a murderer when you aren’t one is craptastic, suing Apple for having the episode online is a bit tangential to say the least.

BET, for its part, has been rebroadcasting the episode with Prince and Randle’s faces obscured. I’m just glad we’ve avoided open hostilities: it’s what Tupac and Biggie would have wanted.

[via Macworld UK]


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