Riffing is one thing, ripping off is another, Berklee charges in copyright lawsuit

Berklee College of Music has filed a federal lawsuit against a Florida man who sells online music education programs to colleges across the country.

In the suit filed last week in US District Court in Boston, Berklee, which has its own online course offerings, alleges that John Terrell and his Music Industry Educators program use Berklee course descriptions and distinctive Web-site icons on its Web site and course descriptions (the icons, Berklee says, "have become service marks relied upon by the music education community and the public as identifying the services of Berklee and distinguishing those services from others").

Berklee wants the court to order Terrell to knock it off and pay the college treble damages. Terrell has yet to respond to the suit.

Read the Berklee complaint (1.7M PDF file, because it includes the entire Berklee course catalog as an exhibit).

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Submitted by adamg on Wed, 09/30/2009 - 8:54am.

Maybe musical punning isn't your forte

But if the college wants "treble damages" then wouldn't Terrell also be asked to respond to the suite, and not the suit?

Kaz | Wed, 09/30/2009 - 10:18am

Depends

On whether the jury finds the claims bass-less.

adamg | Wed, 09/30/2009 - 10:21am

Puns

Oboe, here we go again

Michael | Wed, 09/30/2009 - 10:24am

I don't like....

...the tenor of this discussion.

Michael Kerpan | Wed, 09/30/2009 - 10:24am

Yeah, I can't bear its tone

And now they want a judge to horn in on the dispute.

Ron Newman | Wed, 09/30/2009 - 11:01am

I think...

We should stop harping on the puns

bostonzest | Wed, 09/30/2009 - 10:48am

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