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Ex-Ink & Dagger Drummer Sues Microsoft

On the morning after Halloween, as I wiped off the remnants of fake mustache and bloodied teeth I'd painted on as my Vampire John Galliano outfit, I thought of the beloved, defunct band Ink & Dagger. Yes, I&D;, the only Philadelphia goth-hardcore outfit I know who could write these dippy, overly ornate songs like "Sarcastic Sunrise" and "Facedreamer" (whoa) and still splice ‘em ‘n' dice ‘em so that they didn't sound so so precious. (OK, a little precious, maybe.) Even while yanking off this goshdarmned corset, I can hear the late, great Sean McCabe screaming and screaming. Still, how bad could they be, when they dressed in Count Drac drag and put out albums with titles like Drive This 7 Inch Wooden Stake Through My Philadelphia Heart? So for the love of all the inkubus sukkubus vampyre erotica north of the Vanias (Pennsyl, Transyl), it's rough to hear that the band is getting screwed by the biggest grave robber of them all: Microsoft. It seems as if Bill Gates' snowboarding video game (it's cold in them thar Carpathian mountains) Amped used three songs from the band's 1998 album The Fine Art of Original Sin without Ink & Dagger's consent. (The tracks in question are the title cut, "The His Tory in Ecstasy", and "Vampirefastode Ver. 1.5".) So I&D; are striking back, not with fangs, but with a lawsuit.

Drummer Ryan McLaughlin, who claims in court statements to own the name, song rights, and images to all things I&D;, says he found out about this Microsoft madness LAST Halloween-- 2004. McLaughlin, who is now a construction contractor in Bensalem, PA, engaged the services of local lawyer, J. Conor Corcoran, in March 2005 and started the process of slaying the corporate giant with that big seven inch stake by filing a suit in the federal courts, alleging copyright infringement. The suit was finally filed in late October.

In our best Smoking Gun fashion, the actual paperwork for all this can be found here. Spooky, no?

Posted by A.D. Amorosi in on Tue: 11-29-05: 12:00 AM CST | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink
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