Court rules against Kraftwerk in sampling case

[The Seeker of Good Songs]

Kraftwerk have lost a lawsuit in Germany's high court on November 20 determining whether artists should have the right to sample other bands' music without infringing on copyright. In the ruling the high court overturned an earlier ruling by Hamburg state court in Kraftwerk's favour stating that reusing even the shortest snippet of a song was considered copyright infringement. The court had prohibited the sampling of a song melody unless it was part of a completely new work bearing no resemblance to the original. Now the German high court has overturned that decision and sent the case back to the civil court. Kraftwerk sued rap producer Moses Pelham for sampling two seconds of their 1977 song "Metal On Metal" in the track "Nur Mir" by Sabrina Setlur.

http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=37597_0_2_0_C

 

[SNS22]

Sampling other artists work is downright theft by untalented people who are incapable of writing their own music. If you're gonna sample use sound or something creative.

 

[Dave]

Sampling other artists work is downright theft by untalented people who are incapable of writing their own music. If you're gonna sample use sound or something creative.

I totally disagree just like I did in 1986. Using sound is a great idea, and so is using something creative but some people that sample are talented, and some are disgusting parasites that ruin old songs. Like Puff Daddy, for example, to bring the argument up to 1997.

Certainly what Public Enemy did with other people's records was groundbreaking, experimental, extremely effective, and completely unreliant on the original record. There were recognizable elements in their classic records, but nothing really sounded like they did.

In this case, I do think the Kraftwerk has the right to retain control of their music. I'd want to hear the original and the song that samples it to really be sure, but two seconds may be enough to rely, not only on the sound, but also on the composition of the original.

I'm divided. In a way I'm against copyright in these cases and I think that if the song was not a commercially available product, or if it were for a limited market, like a club release, then the artists should be able to use whatever. But reluctantly I have to say that the artist should retain some control and if they don't want their music used then the person using it should come up with something else.