Lil Wayne, Birdman and others sued for copyright infringement

Lil Wayne, Birdman, Cash Money Records, Universal Music Group, Inc., and other music distribution channels, including  Apple Computer, Inc. and RealNetworks, Inc. have been sued for copyright infringement. Thomas Marasciullo discovered his vocals appearing on tracks from the rappers’ joint album Like Father, Like Son and Birdman’s 5 (Star) Stunna. The label asked Marasciullo to record Italian-Mafia styled background lyrics to said tracks then used them without pay or permission.

An excerpt from Loyalty (Intro) Like Father, Like Son (2006):

More here and here. The complete Loyalty lyrics:

You know while your mother is cooking the macaroni
today I figured I’d sit down and talk to you since you’re old enough.
You know it’s time that you really realize what this family is all about.
Cause about this time is when you’re gonna be able to join in
and earn some real money and real cash, but before you do that
I wanna teach you a little bit about loyalty.
The main name of this game is respect and loyalty.
Family is a big thing when we do this kind of business.
Everything is with respect and when a family member gets outta
line and another family don’t like it one thing leads to another
and the next thing you know, you’re gone and then you’re just a memory of me.
My hearts broke then, but you gotta remember there’s always family and loyalty,
loyalty is the main thing. Obviously you know I don’t make my money,
I don’t make all my cash from uh construction jobs we do, and
uh, sanitation and private stuff is all earned money through the family.
And since you’re of age now I think it’s time I taught you what coming into the family
and respect is all about. So the first thing you gotta learn is the name respect.
That means you don’t cross nobody you don’t go over the line.
Once you go over that line there’s no coming back whether
you’re a member of the family or not.
That’s when people get whacked and we don’t want nobody whacked in our family.
So I gotta teach you the proper way of respect.
When you’re earning money, everybody earns, everybody eats bread.
It’s all about cash money that’s what it’s all about making the money.
So the first thing of business is this, you remember your name.
You don’t forgets your roots.
You never ever disrespect anyone that’s above you especially your capo.
Especially the big time guys, those are the guys you listen to.
You never ever disrespect anyone unless you’re told to unless you get the okay.
And if there is no sit down, there’s nothing.