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

By adamg - 9/30/09 - 8:54 am

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).

Comments

Maybe musical punning isn't your forte

By Kaz - 9/30/09 - 10:18 am
#1

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

Depends

By adamg - 9/30/09 - 10:21 am
#2

On whether the jury finds the claims bass-less.

Puns

By Michael - 9/30/09 - 10:24 am
#3

Oboe, here we go again

I don't like....

By Michael Kerpan - 9/30/09 - 10:24 am
#4

...the tenor of this discussion.

Yeah, I can't bear its tone

By Ron Newman - 9/30/09 - 11:01 am
#5

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

I think...

By bostonzest - 9/30/09 - 10:48 am
#6

We should stop harping on the puns

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.