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[Camie]

Originally Posted by Mail Tribune

Man says he wrote Green Day's songs
He files complaint alleging copyright infringement
By ANITa burke


Hearing Green Day's "American Idiot" album took Paul McPike, a 32-year-old grocery store checker in Medford, right back to high school.

But it wasn't just the album's punk-pop indictment of authority that reminded him of being a teenager. He claimed to have sung all the songs for his classmates at Independence High School, an alternative school in Sutter Creek, Calif., back in 1992.

McPike, who has lived in Medford for four months and worked at a ski resort in South Lake Tahoe last winter, filed a copyright infringement complaint in U.S. District Court last week.

Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge John Cooney recommended dismissing the case, but added that McPike, who represented himself, could file an amended complaint detailing his copyright of the lyrics and music.

Although McPike's original two-page complaint claimed he composed both the lyrics and melodies in early 1992, the only evidence he submitted was a copy of the album and his claim that the words lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong sings don't exactly match those printed on the album's cover.

McPike said he plans to continue researching copyright law and resubmit his case with additional evidence, which he declined to detail.

McPike said he has composed songs for his own amusement since high school and occasionally shares them with friends, but has never performed publicly. He theorizes that a friend must have recorded a cassette of him singing at home and somehow that recording reached Green Day.

"It was just disbelief every time I heard it on the radio," McPike said.

He wrote several letters to Warner Bros. Records and Green Day, but never got an answer, so proceeded with his suit, which asks for an unspecified share of the profits from the album and a concert CD/DVD, "Bullet in a Bible," featuring songs from the album.

Representative from Warner Bros. and Green Day couldn't be reached for comment.

Doug Schmor, a Medford attorney who handles some copyright cases but isn't involved in this one, said to make a legitimate copyright infringement case, a person would have to show written evidence of authorship that predates any other copyright. While that proof could be as simple as a signed and dated copyright statement, some artists send copies of their work through certified mail to document the date, he said. A registered copyright is the easiest to defend in court and obtaining one for original works isn't as expensive or complicated as people think, Schmor said.

http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2...n-day-suit.htm

[Alkaline]

I think the hint is in the 'alternative school' bit. The guys clearly a couple of hookers short of an orgy.