Advertise
Resources
Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
The Queen of Pop, Madonna — recently named the highest paid musician of 2013 by Forbes — this week defeated a lawsuit that claimed she and producer Robert “Shep” Pettibone had illegally sampled a track that the claimant contended had been “deliberately hidden” in the singer’s 1990 hit “Vogue.”
A U.S. District Court judge in California ruled that Madonna and Mr. Pettibone’s sampling of a horn section of a track by the Salsoul Orchestra was so “trivial” that it could not be recognized.
Delaware-based record company VMG Salsoul L.L.C. owns the copyright to a 1976 track called “Chicago Bus Stop,” which was itself remixed — by Mr. Pettibone — in 1983 in a tune called “Love Break.”
VMG Salsoul alleged that it had discovered a “deliberately hidden” sample of that track in Madonna’s international smash hit through the use of recently developed technology.
The record company argued that Madonna — real name Madonna Louise Ciccone — had performed “Vogue” numerous times, including during the 2012 Super Bowl, but had never paid for the sample.
But U.S. District Court Judge Beverly O’Connell ruled that the sample — which appears 11 times during “Vogue” — was so minimal as to be unrecognizable.
“Having listened to the sound recordings of Chicago Bus Stop, Love Break and Vogue, the Court finds that no reasonable audience would find the sampled portions qualitatively or quantitatively significant in relation to the infringing work, nor would they recognize the appropriation,” the court ruling stated.
The famous overstuffed deli sandwiches and cheesecakes featured at the well-known Carnegie Deli in New York have now become the focus of a messy lawsuit and divorce.