22 December 2014Copyright

$2m copyright award for Whoomp! (There It Is) upheld

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has affirmed a $2 million copyright ruling over the song Whoomp! (There It Is).

A claim of copyright infringement was brought by Alvertis Isbell, known as Al Bell, ex-president of the now defunct Bellmark Records, at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against DM Records. He claimed the record company “wilfully” infringed the copyright of the song.

The court awarded $2.1 million in damages to Bell in 2012.

The song was first released by the hip hop band Tag Team in 1993 and reached number 2 in the US Billboard charts. It featured on their album with the same name.

Tag Team signed a licensing deal with Bellmark Records. In the agreement they assigned 50% of the copyright to Bellmark and its “affiliated designee publisher”.

Bellmark Records went bankrupt in 1997. According to the court document, Bell had formed the record company Alvert Music in 1977 and transferred over the rights to the song Whoomp! (There It Is) following Bellmark’s bankruptcy.

During Bellmarks’ bankruptcy proceedings, another record company called DM Records purchased assets worth $166,000, which they claimed included the song. Afterwards it  began profiting from the song.

DM Records appealed against the 2012 ruling claiming that it should be entitled to 50% of the royalties to the song because it was part of the assets purchased from the bankrupt Bellmark Records sale. The court, however, rejected this argument.

DM Records also sought relief from the damages stating that Bell should only receive half the sum, because the $2 million figure was the sum total of all of the revenue generated from the song.

However, the figure was affirmed because “there was testimony that Bell is the administrator of 100% of the royalties and is responsible for accounting to Tag Team”.

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