A grocery store clerk in Medford, OR has filed a copyrightinfringement suit against Green Day, claiming the band took the lyricsfor American Idiot from songs he wrote in high school in 1992.In a suit filed in U.S. District Court, Paul McPike, 32, alleges hesung all the songs on the album for his classmates and thinks perhaps afriend recorded a tape of him singing at home and that somehow thattape made its way into Green Day’s hands. McPike is seeking anunspecified share of the profits from the album and from the concertCD/DVD Bullet in a Bible.
“It was just disbelief everytime I heard it on the radio,” McPike, who says he wrote severalletters to Warner Bros. and the band, but never got an answer, toldOregon’s Mail Tribune. Last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge JohnCooney suggested the case be dismissed but said McPike could file anamended complaint detailing his copyright of the lyrics and music. Theonly evidence in McPike’s original complaint was a copy of Green Day’salbum and a claim that the words Billie Joe Armstrong sings do notexactly match those written in the liner notes. McPike told the Mail Tribune he will continue researching copyright law and will resubmit his case with additional evidence.
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