Another day, another case of copyright infringement is filed. In the music industry, especially the hip-hop community, there is no shortage of copyright lawsuits. There have been a few cases this year however that have caught my eye.
Lil Wayne is no stranger to copyright infringement accusations. He even received a copyright infringement summons while in jail last year. This past week another producer has gone on record saying that Lil Wayne stole his song. Lil Wayne’s latest release – “How To Love” is said to be produced by hip-hop producer ‘Detail’. However indie producer Chief Stockton claims he made a strikingly similar beat in 2008, which was available on the website 'SoundCloud'. The video claiming the infringement was released by musicindustryreport.org in the end of June. If you listen to both tracks there is no denying that Chief Stockton’s beat is almost identical to the beginning of ‘How to Love’. As of late, Chief Stockton has not filed a lawsuit and it is unclear if we will pursue legal action. If he does – it will be the fourth lawsuit that Lil Wayne is hit with in the past two months alone.
(Source: Music Industry Report)
Synchronization licenses are required in order to sync copyrighted audio with moving images – commercials included – regardless of weather the master sound recording is used or not. During this year’s Super Bowl, Chrysler released a commercial for their new Chrysler 200 model. Less than a year later Audi has released a similar commercial using music that is clearly meant to sound like Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” but without a license from Eight Mile Style LLC, the publisher of Eminem’s copyrights. The song has an instrumental beat that is hard to mistake. Listening to Audi’s commercial you can tell that they were trying to avoid a licensing issue, however the commercial music bares ‘substantial similarity’ to the original. Eight Mile Style filed a lawsuit in Germany in June ordering a cease-and-desist letter as well as seeking damages. The commercial has not been released in the U.S. and after the filing of the lawsuit it is unlikely that it will.
(Source: Billboard)
There is no shortage of sampling in the music industry. The majority of samples can be cleared with an upfront fee, while others require a stake in copyright ownership. Musicians are advised time and time again to clear samples before they are used or face a possible lawsuit. This week Ghostface Killah, of rap group Wu-Tang Clan, became the latest lawsuit target. Since his 1996 debut, entitled ‘Iron Man’, Ghostface has been known to use the moniker of the same name, and now is being sued for illegally using the ‘Iron Man Theme’ on his album ‘Supreme Clientele’. According to the lawsuit, portions of which can be viewed here, “Ghostface copied verbatim the sound recording and musical composition of the “Iron Man Theme” on two places on his album Supreme Clientale: as the first track and part of the last track”. I went ahead and performed a search of the Ghostface tracks in the iTunes Store and guess what? It is the same exact thing. This isn’t just a sample – it’s a blatant copy. Ghostface’s lawyers will most likely sit there astonished and wonder how it is that this wasn’t cleared ahead of time. My opinion would be that this gets settled out of court – sooner rather than later.
(Source: All Hip-Hop News)
References:
'Iron Man' Composer Sues 'Ghostface' For Millions Over Sample, Name Use
Eminem's Publisher Files Lawsuit Against Audi's Chrysler-Like Ad
Indie Producer claims Lil Wayne stole the “How To Love” Beat From Him!
