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Don Henley Vs Frank Ocean Over Unauthorized Use of Eagles Classic

06/05/2014
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(Radio.com) Frank Ocean knew this day was coming when he preemptively posted back in March of 2012 on his Tumblr that Rhino Records threatened to sue him over his track "American Wedding" from his nostalgia, ULTRA mixtape, which samples the Eagles hit song "Hotel California." On the track, Ocean takes the master recording of "Hotel California," using the music but putting his own lyrics over them.

Eagles' Don Henley, who sings the song, is not a fan and has now spoken publicly about it. "I heard it, I was not impressed," Henley told the Daily Telegraph. "He needs to come up with his own ideas and stop stealing stuff from already established works."

Henley goes on to suggest that Ocean doesn't understand U.S. copyright law, which prohibits unapproved use of copyrighted works such as this, even when they are distributed for free as his mixtape originally was.

For his part, Ocean seems to understand perfectly. He just doesn't care. "If I don't show up to court, it'll be a judgement against me & will probably show up on my credit report. Oh well. I try to buy my s- cash anyway," Ocean wrote on his Tumblr back in March of 2012.

Ocean's attitude toward Henley and the Eagles is another burr in Henley's saddle. "[Ocean] was quite arrogant about it," Henley said. 'We tried to approach him calmly to talk reason to him via his managers and his attorneys and he wouldn't listen. So finally we threatened to bring legal action against him. He was clearly in the wrong. I wouldn't dream of doing something like that. What kind of ego is that? I don't understand it." Ocean isn't the only one that Henley has a problem with.

Radio.com is an official news provider for antiMusic.com.
Copyright Radio.com/CBS Local - Excerpted here with permission.

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