Jay-Z and Kanye West have settled a copyright infringement lawsuit that was filed against the rappers in federal court. The lawsuit claimed that the men stole a sample of music for their song The Joy.
The rappers teamed up for the critically acclaimed album Watch the Throne and were quickly sued in October by Syl Johnson for an unauthorized sample of his song Different Strokes. Johnson claimed in the lawsuit that Kanye West tried to obtain the rights to the sample for his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy but the two sides were never able to work out details in time for the albums release.
Shortly after Watch the Throne was released Syl realized the same sample Kanye West had sought before had been used and he filed his copyright infringement lawsuit.
Details from the case which was filed in Illinois federal court are not known because no further details were made available to the public. According to documents both sides decided to settle the case rather than take it to trial.
Syl Johnson is a veteran of the copyright infringement lawsuit, he has previously filed and won cases against Cypress Hill, Jefferson Airplane, Wu-Tang Clan, Kid Rock and most famously against Michael Jackson . The singers battle with Cypress Hill lasted nearly 20 years.
Island Def Jams was handling the rights management for the album and Syl Johnson was left off the records credits despite his vocals being used for the track. That lack of credits meant no money for Johnson before the case was settled.
Do you think this was an open and closed case of copyright infringement?
