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Business News Legal
Kan-Z settle with Syl Johnson
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 12 March 2012
Jay-Z and Kanye West have reportedly settled a legal spat with Syl Johnson over the use of his song ‘Different Strokes’ on their ‘Watch The Throne’ album.
Johnson accused the two hip hoppers of sampling his song without asking for permission, after West unsuccessfully tried to secure the rights to sample the song for a track on his ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ long player.
Had the case got to court tedious technicalities relating to how federal and state copyright systems in the US interconnect would have been the main subject of debate, because the original release of ‘Different Strokes’ preceded the launch of the federal system in 1972, and Kan-Z’s lawyers were expected to say that, as a result, it didn’t get copyright protection. Johnson was trying to fight the case under Illinois State Law.
But, according to TMZ, none of this will have to happen, because the lawsuit was dismissed last week after both sides reached some sort of settlement. So that’s nice.
