/
Three Men in New York Court Over "Hotel California" Song Words
/
Intermediate
Intermediate
Defendants memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski, left, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi, center, and rare-book dealer Glenn Horowitz take a seat at the defense table in Supreme Court, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, in New York. A judge in New York will continue hearing testimony today in a criminal case involving ownership of the handwritten lyrics for the songs on the "Hotel California" album by The Eagles. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Three Men in New York Court Over "Hotel California" Song Words

February 23rd, 2024

Three men are in court in New York because there is a problem with some important music papers. These papers have the words to songs from the "Hotel California" album by a famous band called The Eagles. The band's manager says that the papers were taken without permission a long time ago. The three men in court are Edward Kosinski, who sells music things, Craig Inciardi, who used to work at a music museum, and Glenn Horowitz, who sells rare books. They say they did nothing wrong. They think they own the papers fairly and did not try to trick anyone. They bought the papers from a writer named Ed Sanders, who is not in trouble right now. A man who used to work at an auction house, Tom Lecky, said in court that he was worried about where the papers really came from. He was first happy to sell them because they were special, but then he felt something was not right. He heard they came from the writer who had planned to write a book about The Eagles but never did. This made him decide not to sell the papers because he wasn't sure if it was okay. The Eagles' manager had to buy back some of the papers from a website because he really wanted to keep them safe. He thought that was the end of the problem. But later, other stories came up about how the writer got the papers. There was even a story that said he found them at a concert, which was not true. Another story said someone from the band gave him the papers, but that was also not sure. The case is still going on in court, and people are trying to find out the truth about the papers. It's a big deal because "Hotel California" is a very famous song.
AI isn't perfect, so some things may be inaccurate. We don't necessarily endorse the views or information you see here and provide it for language learning purposes only.

💭 Discussion Questions


1
. What is the problem with the music papers in New York court?
2
. Who are the three men in court, and what do they claim about the papers?
3
. Why did the manager of The Eagles have to buy back some of the papers from a website?

📖 Vocabulary


🌐 Cultural context


The cultural context is that "Hotel California" is a well-known rock song from the United States, created by a popular American band, The Eagles. The dispute involves rare music collectibles, which have high cultural and financial value. Legal cases about ownership and authenticity are common in the US.

🧠 Further reading


Intellectual Property (album)
Waterparks, an American rock band, has a new album called "Intellectual Property." It is their fifth album and was released on April 14, 2023. They now work with a music company called Fueled by Ramen. Before the album came out, the band gave us hints about the new music. They shared their first song, "Funeral Grey," on May 13. Then, they shared more songs like "Self-Sabotage" and "Brainwashed," which they played at their concerts. They even made a special video for "Self-Sabotage." Another new song called "Real Super Dark" was played for the first time at a concert on August 30. They released a song with another musician, Blackbear, called "Fuck About It," and made a video for it too. The band told us the album's name on November 23 and shared more songs, including "Real Super Dark" and "Brainwashed." Later, they added another song called "Sneaking Out of Heaven" to the album. People talk about the album having different kinds of music like pop rock, hyperpop, electronica, alternative rock, and pop punk, with some hip hop style too. People who listen to music and write about it like the album a lot. A writer named Emily Carter thinks it's very good and different. Another writer named Ashley Oken says the album mixes old and new styles of the band's music and is very bold.

Fine art authentication
In the world of art, it is important to know if a painting or sculpture is real and who made it. This is called art authentication. We do this to keep art honest, protect history, and make sure people can trust when they buy art. Today, we use different ways to tell if art is real. We look at the art itself, use science, and now, new computer tools help us too. Long ago, people tried to find out who made an art piece by looking at the style and how it was made. But sometimes, it was hard to tell a real piece from a copy. As time went by, and as more and more people wanted to buy art from all over the world, checking art became even harder. One way to check if art is real is to look at papers that should come with the art. These papers can tell us if the art is what it says it is. But even with all this checking, sometimes there are arguments and problems. Some people are very good at making fake art, and they try to trick others. But as we learned more, we started to use science to look at art. This helped a lot and now, we can see much more about an artwork, like what's under the paint.

Law
Law is a set of important rules that help people know how to behave. These rules are made and used by the leaders of a place to help everyone live together nicely. Some people say law is like science, and others say it is about being fair. There are different ways to make laws. Some are made by groups of people who decide things for a country. Others are made by one person or by the leaders who are in charge. Also, judges sometimes decide on laws when they make decisions in court. People can also make their own rules when they agree on things, like when they make a deal or decide how to solve problems without going to court. Laws can be part of a country's big rules, called a constitution. This constitution can be written down or just understood. Laws help with many things like how people decide who leads, how they do business, and how they live together. Different places have different kinds of laws. In some places, the rules are written down in one big list. In other places, judges decide on the laws by looking at what has happened before. A long time ago, and even now in some places, religion helps make the laws. There are two main kinds of law. Public law is about the rules that help everyone live together and includes things like rules for the country and rules about doing something wrong. Private law is about disagreements between people or businesses. This includes things like making deals, owning things, and doing business. Some countries make a clear line between these two kinds, especially if they have special courts for the government's rules. Other countries don't separate them too much.