Its all fun and games until the lawyers arrive. The way it works today, if you say ridiculous things on a news interview, there is a good chance someone is going to put it online. If it is popular online, there is a good chance someone is going to make a funny song about it. And, if the song is popular, there is good chance someone is going to start selling it. Now, at what point do you get back involved in the process you started? Right there at the last part -- when someone starts selling it, and is not paying you for saying ridiculous things in the first place. And, since you're suing people anyway, why not include Apple, too? Welcome to the way things work today.
In April 2012, Oklahoma City resident Kimberly Wilkins -- also known as Sweet Brown -- was interviewed by local news station KFOR-TV NewsChannel 4 regarding a house fire. Her comments like "I got bronchitis, ain't nobody got time for that!" and "Oh, Lord Jesus it's a fire." fueled a social media viral outbreak. Within 48 hours, the video had over 1 million views and a new internet meme star was born.
According to Business Insider, however, Sweet Brown wasn't feeling too sweet about what happened next, and sued for unauthorized use of her likeness. Her legal targets? Well, a radio program, the owners of the radio station, and -- wait for it -- Apple, of course. Apparently, The Bob River Show produced a song called "I Got Bronchitis" using samples from Sweet Brown's TV interview, and started selling it on iTunes. According to the suit, the radio program also lied when they stated that Sweet Brown approved the use of her voice in the song.
Uh, yeah...I still don't see how this involves us.
In the lawsuit filed last June in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Sweet Brown claimed she was going to need about $15 million from the defendants. The suit has moved up to the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, although the original lawyers are no longer involved, as Sweet Brown and her business manager, Sparkell Adams, have decided to represent themselves. That's right, the two attorneys who filed the lawsuit for Sweet Brown were released on March 1, stating that "There are unresolvable differences between counsel and the plaintiffs that require withdrawal of counsel." So, now it is Sweet Brown and Sparkell going after the big payout. Which should work out well for them.
Either way, for Sweet Brown, this is just more time in the spotlight. Since the original TV interview gaver her 15-plus minutes of fame, Sweet Brown managed to to leverage her internet glory into several local commercials and many TV and radio appearances. Assumedly, Sweet Brown accomplished this new spokesperson career with the help of her manager, Sparkell.
As fascinating as this case is, and it appears that Sweet Brown has a legitimate claim at least against the radio show, that will probably be as far as it goes. We suspect that Apple will be excluded from any legal action just because the song was for sale on iTunes. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act potentially protects companies from this sort of thing, so long as they quickly remove any material with disputed copyright. Which it appears Apple did as soon as they were notified. The song was available on iTunes from April 16, 2012 until June 29, 2012.
So, really, the saddest part of this whole drama is that you can't buy the "I Got Bronchitis" song anymore. However, if you missed this gem the first time around, it is still on YouTube, for now. In any event, it doesn't look like Cupertino will be writing any checks to Sweet Brown anytime soon. Unless she and Sparkell decide to release her own version of the song on iTunes and, really, wouldn't that be something?
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