Le Tigre’s Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman have settled their lawsuit against singer-songwriter Barry Mann, who claimed that their song “Deceptacon” infringed the copyright for his 1961 hit “Who Put the Bomp (In the Bomp, Bomp Bomp),” according to documents reviewed by Pitchfork. The suit’s claims were amicably resolved by a confidential settlement agreement without any public admission of liability. The suit has consequently been dismissed with prejudice, so it cannot be refiled.
Hanna and Fateman had filed their suit in New York federal court October 8 in response to cease-and-desist letters from Mann’s lawyers. They asserted that Mann and co-writer Gerry Goffin have no copyright claim because “Bomp” itself was not a wholly original work, and that Mann and Goffin copied Black doo-wop groups active during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for Hanna, Fateman, and Mann for comment.