Poet files suit against Insane Clown Posse

DETROIT (AP) — An Ohio man says Detroit rap-metal group the Insane Clown Posse and member Joseph Bruce used a poem he wrote without his consent.

Stanley Gebhardt filed the copyright infringement suit last Tuesday in federal court in Detroit.

It seeks monetary damages and asks a judge to force Bruce and the group to stop using Gebhardt’s “But You Didn’t.”

The suit says the poem, about a father-son relationship, was copyrighted in 1993.

Gebhardt’s attorney, Michael Dezsi, tells the Detroit Free Press  his client learned in 2015 that a video of Bruce reciting the poem had been posted on YouTube. Bruce, who goes by the stage name Violent J, called it “Violent J’s Poem.”

The Associated Press left a voicemail last Thursday seeking comment from attorney Howard Hertz, who represents the Insane Clown Posse.