Gary Symons
TLL Editor in Chief
As a journalist, you never think you’re going to write a sentence like “The Black Eyed Peas are suing a toy company over a pooping unicorn toy,” but such is life.
When I saw the news that BMG Rights Management has filed a suit against MGA over their Poopsie Slime Surprise: Dancing Unicorn toy, I had to double check to make sure someone wasn’t having me on.
But, in fact, BMG is alleging that a song played by the dancing unicorn entitled ‘My Poops’ infringes on the copyright for the Black Eyed Peas 2005 hit song My Humps.
The song apparently plays when buyers press the unicorn’s heart-shaped belly button, but the lawsuit says the lyrics deliberately mimic the sound and lyrics from My Humps.
Specifically, BMG’s filing claims the lyrics, ‘My poops, my poops my poops my poops. Whatcha’ gonna do with all that poop, all that poop’, is an almost exact copy of the lyrics in My Humps, minus the humps. BMG also alleges the song My Poops uses the same melody and chords, and that the singing/pooping unicorn sounds “very similar” to Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie.
In fact, BMG alleges most of the lyrics are pretty closely based on the Black Eyed Peas composition. For example, the unicorn sings, ‘I drive my parents crazy, I do it every day’, which is close to the line in My Humps,‘I drive these brothers crazy, I do it on the daily.’
BMG is asking for an award of $10 million in damages, based on their estimation that the Poopsie Slime Surprise toy line has earned a great deal of revenue, which they say is partially due to its background track, My Poops.
The music publisher says it tried to resolve the issue by issuing a ‘cease and desist’ letter from its lawyers, but got no response from MGA.
The toymaker has yet to make a statement on the issue, or to file a Statement of Defence in court.
In the meantime, anyone interested can view the primary exhibits for themselves, the first being the My Poops video, and the other being the original My Humps video from the Black Eyed Peas.