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Published - 28 October 2006 3:46AM CDT || AP

50 Cent No Two-Bit Song Stealer

Miami (AP) -- A judge has dismissed a copyright infringement
lawsuit accusing rapper 50 Cent of stealing the opening line for
his 2003 hit "In Da Club" from a song by former 2 Live Crew
frontman Luther Campbell.

U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck found Friday that the disputed
phrase was a "common, unoriginal, and noncopyrightable element
of the song" and was not entitled to copyright protection.

Moreover, outside of the opening phrase, there are almost no
similarities between the works, and the phrase in question represents
only eleven seconds of a more than three-minute song, the judge wrote.
No reasonable jury would conclude that the compositions have
substantial similarities and the average person would not confuse
the two songs, the judge wrote.

The original lawsuit was filed in Miami federal court in January on
behalf of Lil' Joe Wein Music against Curtis James Jackson, aka 50 Cent.

Source: AP

lol wtf?

who sues for the opening 5 words of a song...when the rest is different?


what's up with people jealous of other's success so they try to bring them down?


unbelievable....

I'm not a real huge fan of 50....but I'm glad he won this bullshit case.

hey, I think this is the first time LG and I completely agree on something.

I also want to note that this wasn't Luke that was suing, it was his the guys that own the publishing to his music...All the more reason why you should own your rights to your stuff...

QUOTE(Lost Ghost @ Oct 30 2006, 03:28 AM) lol wtf?

who sues for the opening 5 words of a song...when the rest is different?


what's up with people jealous of other's success so they try to bring them down?


unbelievable....

I'm not a real huge fan of 50....but I'm glad he won this bullshit case.

The bloke who composed the theme for kids tv show The Wombles, got sued for accusation of plagiarism for his work "One Minute of Silence". Apparently there was a piece composed before him that was 3 minutes longer.......

The defendant's statement was that he was able "to express more in less time", so it was better. I'm not sure if he won the case, but by all means the lawsuit was one of the stupidest ever made, I reckon.

QUOTE(AYHJA @ Oct 30 2006, 02:05 PM) I also want to note that this wasn't Luke that was suing, it was his the guys that own the publishing to his music...All the more reason why you should own your rights to your stuff...


Yep, absolutely.


The band Beatallica, who parodies Metallica's music by converting them to Beatles-esque forms (I think some of their stuff has been posted here), were sued by the record company for supposedly ripping off the band, and shut their web site down. Lars Ulrich, co-founder/drummer/leader/spokesman of Metallica, & Metallica's lawyer Peter Paterno, to appeal the lawsuit, and got Beatallica's website back online.

In case no one understands the point of my previous two posts in this thread, they are examples similar to the stupidity of suing for the creative control of 5 measly words in a song....