Ellen show producers "don't roll that way," get sued for infringement

While I spent last week on vacation back East (investigating important intellectual property matters, of course) I missed the chance to get an early scoop on what will probably be a very expensive case of intellectual property nonchalance.

The Tennessean reports that when producers of Ellen Degeneres' daytime TV talk show were approached by record company lawyers about their failure to obtain permission to use songs for the show's many dance segments they were told that the producers "did not roll that way."

It's terrible form, but I'm going to quote the Nashville Scene blog, who quoted the Tennessean, who quoted the record company lawyers' response to Ellen's producers:

"As sophisticated consumers of music," attorneys for the recording companies wrote in the suit, "Defendants knew full well that, regardless of the way they rolled, under the Copyright Act, and under state law for the pre-1972 recordings, they needed a license to use the sound recordings lawfully."

Let that be a lesson to all of us: regardless of the way you roll, mind your copyright P's and Q's.