AS GOES BIGGIE, so goes the state of intellectual property.

One week ago, a Tennessee jury found that the Notorious B.I.G. used a sample from the Ohio Players song “Singing in the Morning” on his 1994 debut album, Ready to Die. Biggie, who was murdered in 1997, had not bothered to obtain a license to use that sample. As a result, the jury awarded Westbound and Bridgeport, the companies that hold the rights to the Ohio Players song, $4.2 million. The judge believed that even this sum wasn’t steep enough, so, in order to “vindicate the integrity of the copyright law,” he ordered a halt to all sales, everywhere, of Ready to Die.