The Los Angeles Times interviewed Manatt's Robert Jacobs, co-chair of the firm's Entertainment and Media practice, for an article on the lawsuit filed in 2007 against rappers Jay Z and Timbaland that accused them of using elements of a 1957 song by an Egyptian composer without permission. A U.S. District Court judge recently threw out the case before it reached trial after determining that the nephew of the Egyptian composer did not have the right to pursue the infringement claim.
Jacobs said, "The judge's decision, which is still forthcoming, will clarify this further, but from what I'm understanding went on, the judge came to understand that the claim was not a traditional copyright infringement claim, but was a moral rights claim, and under U.S. law [such claims] are limited …. It doesn't apply to music."
Jacobs said an appeal "could be groundbreaking. I don't believe there are any court of appeals decisions addressing this …. I think it will be helpful for all of us who practice in infringement, and in the music infringement area in particular, to get clarification from the [U.S.] 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on this."
Read the article here.