October 22, 2011 / 1497 reads / 3 comments
According to a report filed by Eriq Gardner at Billboard.biz, POISON have been hit with a lawsuit claiming that four of their songs were stolen from another band.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Illinois federal court, isn't over recently created work, but rather over old hits, including "Talk Dirty To Me," "I Won't Forget You," "Fallen Angel" and "Ride the Wind."
The plaintiffs in this new case are Billy McCarthy and James Stonich, who were members of a Chicago band known as Kid Rocker (formerly signed to Atlantic Records). According to the plaintiffs, in 1984, before guitarist C.C. DeVille joined Poison, he auditioned for Kid Rocker. During this time, he allegedly was shown completed and formatted songs and was lent master-recorded studio tapes. Kid Rocker disbanded that year, but McCarthy purportedly presented songs for DeVille's use as a member of another band, Screamin' Mimis and then DeVille joined Poison.
Now, 25 years later, McCarthy and Stonich are suing members of Poison plus Capitol Records and EMI Music for allegedly infringing the copyright on their songs. The plaintiffs are demanding disgorgement of all profits from the songs in question, statutory damages for willful infringement, and an injunction that prevents Poison and Michaels from performing this allegedly stolen material.
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