Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

The ongoing case between the German electronic band Kraftwerk and rap artist Moses Pelham is a lingering point of copyright contention: Two seconds of music lifted from Kraftwerk's "Metall auf Metall" (Metal on Metal) single from 1977 was looped into the hip-hop track "Nur mir" (Only to Me), which Pelham produced for vocalist Sabrina Setlur in 1997. 

Having been threshed out at every level of the German judicial system, [...] the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg [...] ruled in favor of Kraftwerk, stating that a permission needed to be obtained to sample another musician's song — even if the clip used is very short.

The rapper accused Slim Shady and his record label Shady Records of sampling his song “Lookin Boy” without permission in the hit song “Rap God”. The man sued Eminem for 8 million dollars in damages for stealing his track.

Eminem fired back at the no-name rapper’s claims he stole his song. He explains that the lawsuit filed by Jones is vague and confusing. Further, he says that he is a Grammy Award winning artist and clearly he wouldn’t steal from someone nobody has heard of before.

The rapper says that Jones didn’t explain any other similarities between the two tracks — besides the fact they both have the lyric “looking boy”. Eminem says if the court would just listen to the songs side by side, while they both are in the rap genre, they are vastly different musical and lyrically.

[…]

Slim Shady said if anything his song renewed interest in “Looking Boy” and didn’t cause Jones any damages and demanded the entire lawsuit be dismissed without any money being awarded to the no-name rapper.

I wonder how much Abba received in royalties for being sampled by Madonna?

How loud is that?