Legal

Kan-Z lawyers respond to Johnson lawsuit

By | Published on Tuesday 20 December 2011

Jay-Z & Kanye West

Lawyers for Kanye West and Jay-Z have responded to that previously reported lawsuit filed by soul man Syl Johnson over a track on their collaborative album ‘Watch The Throne’.

As previously reported, Johnson says the duo’s track ‘The Joy’ samples his song ‘Different Strokes’ without permission. Johnson’s lawsuit says West’s people approached his representatives about using the sample on his ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ album but no agreement was reached. The sample then showed up on ‘Watch The Throne’ without a request even being made.

As expected, the West-Z legal team are fighting the legal claim primarily on technicalities relating to US copyright law. ‘Different Strokes’ dates from 1967, five years short of the key year of 1972, when federal copyright protection kicks in. Although Johnson’s lawsuit specifically claims copyright protection under Illinois State Law, the West-Z rebuttal disputes that any such protection exists.

It’s a complicated area of American copyright law, and Johnson lost a previous legal action over an unapproved sample against Cypress Hill because of the same technicalities. It remains to be seen how things turn out this time.



READ MORE ABOUT: | |