A 20-year dispute over a sample taken from the Kraftwerk Song ‘Metall Auf Metall’ and used in the song ‘Nur Mir’ by Sabrina Setlur. The offending sample is only two seconds long which was sampled by Martin Hass and Moses Pelham and Looped on Setlur’s track.
The European Court of Justice ruled in favour of Kraftwerk as the sample used was clearly recognisable of that being the work of Kraftwerk and therefore their copyright had been infringed but it also gave a note on the ‘Freedom of Arts’ which allows samples which are modified to the extent that they are unrecognisable to the ear.
If someone wants to sample a song, they must alter the sample so that it is unrecognisable. If they do not, they must ask for permission otherwise they would be infringing the copyright of the existing artists work. Unless, it is in the public domain, which is where copyright on a song has expired and anyone can use it. This case clearly shows that even when a sample is brief, if it is recognisable then permission is needed from the producer. Otherwise, copyright has been infringed. Also, it shows that any sound taken from a recording must be authorised.
However, the key element that arises from this case is the speculation surrounding the precedent where sufficient manipulation of a sample has taken place and is unrecognisable would, therefore, be legal. So it gives insight on how the European Court sees recognition as a key element of their music copyright cases.
By Owen White Third Year Law Student at Solent University
