The Sales of Notorious B.I.G.'s Album "Ready to Die" Stopped

The sales of Notorious B.I.G.'s breakthrough 1994 album "Ready to Die" were stopped after a jury decided the title song used part of an Ohio Players tune without permission.

On Friday, the jury awarded $4.2 million in punitive and direct damages to the two music companies that own rights to Ohio Players recordings.

The sales ban imposed by U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell affects the album and the title song in any form, including Internet downloads and radio play.

The jury decided that Bad Boy Entertainment and executive producer Sean "Diddy" Combs illegally used a part of the Ohio Players' 1992 song "Singing In The Morning."

Bridgeport Music and Westbound Records, which owned the song rights, have filed hundreds of lawsuits over "sampling," the practice of lifting parts of old music for new recordings. Most were settled out of court.

The companies get most of their income from song royalties by their artists, which include funk legend George Clinton, the Funkadelics and the Ohio Players.

"We've just been battling this for such a long time," Armen Boladian, owner of Westbound and Bridgeport said. "So many have been settled because companies didn't want anything to do with it, and we knew we were right."

The defendants, Bad Boy Entertainment, Bad Boy LLC, Justin Combs Publishing and Universal Records plan to appeal. "We think (the verdict) is without merit," defense lawyer Jay Bowen said.