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Legal
Cypress Hill win long running copyright litigation
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 7 June 2011
Cypress Hill have won a long running legal battle with soul singer Syl Johnson, who claimed they infringed his copyrights by using a sample of one of his songs, ‘Is It Because I’m Black’, on their 1993 track ‘Lock Down’ without permission.
Johnson’s case against the hip hop group untangled on first hearing in 2008 because of various technicalities of American copyright law – the original release came out before America’s Federal Copyright Act of 1972 under which the soul singer was suing, and he hadn’t registered the song with the copyright registry (which you have to in America) until after Cypress Hill released their 1993 track.
Johnson appealed the 2008 ruling, but, according to Allhiphop.com, the appeal was dismissed in court last week.
