Jay-Z sued for copyright infringement over ‘Decoded’ | News


A Los Angeles man is suing Jay-Z for invasion of privacy and infringement of intellectual property based on claims that the rapper’s 2010 book Decoded contains portions of a book he was working on in 2009.

In a handwritten lawsuit filed June 13 and obtained by AllHipHop, Patrick White claims that Decoded contains portions that are “very similar” to the book he’d been writing on a personal computer that was stolen in 2009.

“The book contains various expressions/colors/phrases which correlates [sic] to my work,” the complaint says.

Considering the fact that Decoded is a firsthand explanation of lyrics Jay-Z recorded over the course of his nearly 20-year career, it will be interesting to see how White plans on proving his claim.

Jay-Z’s co-author dream hampton and book publisher Random House are also named in the suit.

White is seeking a portion of the profits generated from sales of the book, as well as statutory and actual damages.

View the lawsuit below.