BOLTON PLAGIARISM DECISION STICKS
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals turned down Bolton's request for a new trial and affirmed the 1994 jury verdict awarding the Isley Brothers $5.4 million as part of the profits from Bolton's 1991 hit.
"In this case, the Isley Brothers undoubtedly contributed something original to ‘Love Is a Wonderful Thing,'" the court said. "Having found that the law was properly applied in this case, we leave the district court's decisions and the jury's credibility determinations undisturbed."
Spokesmen for both Bolton and the Isley Brothers had no comment on the ruling.
Bolton and the Isleys have been at feuding since 1994, when a Los Angeles jury voted that Bolton's "Love Is a Wonderful Thing" was taken in part from a little-known 1966 Isley Brothers song of the same name.
The jurors decided that the Isley Brothers were entitled to 66 percent of the profits from the song. It also said that the song was responsible for 28 percent of the sales of the album that contained it, "Time, Love & Tenderness."
Bolton said at the time the jury's decision would cost him millions of dollars but he would not be more specific. The album has sold 10 million copies worldwide and brought Bolton and co-writer Andrew Goldmark a Grammy award.
The court subsequently ordered Sony, Bolton's music company, to pay $4.2 million, Bolton himself to pay $932,924, Goldmark to pay $220,785 and music publishing companies to pay $75,900.
