ICP in Lawsuit over Poem read on the Hotline in early 2000s

OK Juggalos, I usually try to keep my opinions out of articles I post, but I was so blown away by the ridiculousness of this lawsuit that I don’t think I’ll be able to do it without sounding some sort of slanted.

First, the basics.  A poet named Stanley Gebhardt wrote a poem back in 1993 called “But You Didn’t” and it was eventually published in a book titled “A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul”. The book sold millions of copies, and someone in your family probably owns it.

Click the pic to view book details

At some point in the early 2000s when the ICP hotline was still regularly updated, Violent J came on and read the poem verbatim with no introduction other than “Everyone just listen to me.”  He followed the poem and stated:

Keep the ones you love close to you and make sure they know you love them all the time.  Because anything can happen at any time.  Make sure whoever you love knows that you love them.  Because this world can be a pretty shocking place sometimes.

You can hear the hotline recording in question below:

As of Tuesday, the original poet is now suing the Insane Clown Posse for copyright infringement.  Let that sink in.  Violent J called into the hotline to leave a new message for everyone to hear.  The hotline is and always has been 100% Free.  Some ninja was touched by the message, so he recorded it.  That recording got passed around and eventually ended up on Youtube.  The Insane Clown Posse NEVER put it out to make a dime on it, nor did they intend for it to be uploaded online.  ICP / Psychopathic Records didn’t even upload it…a random Juggalo did!

From what I can gather, the original author and his lawyer thinks that ICP had it on an album and made some sort of money on it.  This isn’t the case, and I hope whomever the judge is (if it makes it to court) sees this and throws it out immediately.

What are your thoughts on all of this?



from Faygoluvers

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