In a bizarre lawsuit that has taken close to 22 years in reckoning, celebrated Electronica musician Moby is being sued over allegations of unlicensed sample usage by New York based funk and disco label VMG Salsoul. In a lawsuit filed earlier this week, the label is demanding statutory damages of up to $150,000 for alleged infringement plus profits and attorney fees, claiming that the Electronic music veteran included unlicensed samples of Philadelphia girl group First Choice’s “Let No Man Put Asunder” on his tracks ‘Next is the E‘ and ‘Thousand‘.
Note that, Salsoul have just come out of another unsuccesful lawsuit where they claimed pop diva Madonna used unlicensed samples on her 1990 dance-pop anthem ‘Vogue‘. The judge ruled that “no reasonable audience would find the sampled portions qualitatively or quantitatively significant in relation to the infringing work, nor would they recognize the appropriation”, hence dropping the lawsuit in favor of the pop star. Meanwhile, Moby has been relatively quiet on the issue, simply tweeting his affection for the original track in question.
ha, all i know is that ‘let no man put asunder’ is an amazing song. Moby Sued for Sampling Something 22 Years Ago http://t.co/Grx6HANCsZ
— moby (@thelittleidiot) March 26, 2014
We’ve done some digging and found all the tracks in question. Give the original a listen and then see if you find any cause of concern after hearing Moby’s duo tracks.
Reblogged this on Hamed Khalidi Blogging.