3 Count: Kraftwerk It

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1: Kraftwerk Loses German Hip-Hop Copyright Case in Top Court

First off today, the BBC is reporting that the electro-pop band Kraftwerk has lost its case against German music producer Moses Pelham as the German Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country, ruled that a two-second drum sample did not infringe on the band’s copyright.

According to the lawsuit, Pelham took the sample and used it in the song Mir by Sabrina Setlur. This prompted Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hutter to file a lawsuit over copyright infringement.

In 2012, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice ruled in favor of Hutter and said that Setlur’s song should no longer be promoted or sold. However, this latest ruling reverses that and sends the case back to the lower court for reevaluation.

2: ‘Sorry, But We Didn’t Steal’ Skrillex Posts About Justin Bieber Copyright Suit

Next up today, The Associated Press is reporting that electronic musician Skrillex has responded to indie artist Casey Dienel, better known as White Hinterland, saying that he and Justin Bieber did not steal Dienel’s sample and even provided a short video displaying how he created the hook that he used.

Dienel recently sued both Bieber and Skrillex for copyright infringement claiming that the duo’s collaboration on the song Sorry used an unauthorized sample from her song Ring the Bell. However, Skrillex claims that the sample in question was actually a modified version of a recording from an a capella version of their song and, though it sounds similar, was not lifted from Dienel’s song.

While the video seems to have convinced many on the Internet, Skrillex, Bieber nor their label have yet to respond to the lawsuit in court.

3: YouTube Threatens Legal Action Against Video Downloader

Finally today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that Google-owned YouTube is contacting third-party sites that allow users to download videos from YouTube, telling them to shut down the functionality or face legal action.

YouTube has long had a policy that forbade users from downloading videos off of the site (other than their own) but many sites have sprang up to make it easy for users to save videos they wanted to keep. YouTube historically has taken little action against these sites, except occasionally sending letters to them.

One site to receive such a letter, Tubeninja, said it has no plans to change course and, instead will continue operating. The operator of the site says he feels YouTube has a weak case against him since he requires users to ensure that they are complying with YouTube’s rules and that Google does nothing to stop Chrome extensions and other tools used to download videos from YouTube.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.