Did Poison Steal Songs?

Motley Crue

This is taken from Blabbermouth, but as a fan of them, I had to reproduce it here and ask what people think?

POISON is being sued by Billy McCarthy and James Stonich, who were members of a Chicago band known as KID ROCKER, for allegedly stealing four of KID ROCKER's songs. The plaintiffs claim that guitarist C.C. DeVille auditioned for KID ROCKER in 1984 prior to joining POISON and was allegedly shown completed and formatted songs and was lent master-recorded studio tapes.

KID ROCKER disbanded that year, but McCarthy purportedly presented songs — including "Hit And Run" and "Wham Bam Slammin' Romance" — for DeVille's use as a member of another group, SCREAMIN' MIMIS. DeVille later joined POISON and proceeded, along with his bandmates, to incorporate KID ROCKER's songs in POISON's own work, including the tracks "Talk Dirty To Me", "I Won't Forget You", "Fallen Angel" and "Ride The Wind".

POISON's debut album, "Look What The Cat Dragged In" — which contains the above-mentioned songs — sold approximately 4 million copies.

In the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in Illinois federal court, 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 singer Bret Michaels from performing this allegedly stolen material.

Acclaimed '80s Swedish glam-rock band EASY ACTION, which featured in its ranks future EUROPE guitarist Kee Marcello, reportedly took POISON to court for allegedly "stealing" the chorus to the EASY ACTION song "We Go Rocking" for the POISON U.S. smash-hit "I Want Action" and was said to have been awarded a financial settlement in the case.

slavetothegrind

Why so long before legal action?

Always difficult to prove, who knows!

Does cc deville even have any money to persue?
Or are they after royalties from here on in?

NIBBS

slavetothegrind wrote: »

Why so long before legal action?

Always difficult to prove, who knows!

Does cc deville even have any money to persue?
Or are they after royalties from here on in?

it's a nonsense to be honest, the only reaon they'd wait this long is because they just thought they can make some quick cash......it sounds like they gave him the songs.....will be hard from them to prove that the permission was only to be used with one specific band.....unless there's contracts in place to say that and if there were surely the lawsuit would have been actioned when Poison had their first hit

slavetothegrind

i guess the lawyers will win as usual.

Sad to see all the same, maybe they had a recent falling out and hence the suit

Kess73

Even if they did rob songs, who the hell would want to admit to writing some of the shyte Poison released? Just let Poison take the blame for that stuff.