From the Associated Press:



Funk music legend George Clinton loses legal fight for music rights



Associated Press

Tuesday, January 30, 2001



TALLAHASSEE, FLA. -- A federal judge has ruled funk music legend George Clinton can't keep rights to some music he wrote in the late 1970s and early 1980s because of a contract with a music publishing company.



The singer's Web site said the work Clinton wrote under that contract is worth more than $100 million in profits.



Clinton argued he never signed a valid contract in 1983 when he signed the rights away to Bridgeport Music, a Michigan-based publishing company.



The judge barred Clinton from profiting from the songs. He said the singer failed to mention the profits as possible future income in a 1984 bankruptcy filing.



Clinton is the founder of the group Parliament, which later changed its name to Funkadelic. The group has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.