Bon Jovi sued for $400bn

A copyright dispute sees Bon Jovi sued again for $400bn...

12:12 11 November 2009

A baseball fan is appealing against the dismissal of his $400bn (£240bn) copyright claim against the band Bon Jovi, Time Warner and Major League Baseball.

Samuel Bartley Steele stated that Bon Jovi released the song 'I Love This Town' which he says was a direct copy of his own ode to Boston's Red Sox baseball team. The original claim was made in 2008.

Steele's own song '(Man I Really) Love This Team' was released in October 2004.

A judge has already dismissed the case, after Steele's own musicologist admitted that the songs were not very similar.

Steele claims that he gave copies of his own song to Red Sox players and executives as well as sending it to MLB with a hope that they would use it to market their sporting events.

Claiming that Bon Jovi stole the song, he says that his band (The Bart Steele Band) played it first on a local TV show.

Bon Jovi released their song during the 2007 play-offs. It was then used by MLB to promote play-off baseball on Time Warner's TBS cable channel.

Steele proposed that the band's frontman Jon Bon Jovi either heard the song when he was campaigning for John Kerry in Boston 2004 or that an executive passed it on to him.

The district judge, however, ruled that no reasonable jury could conclude there was any substantial similarity between the songs.

This action has prompted Steele to appeal to begin the lawsuit afresh.