Manatt’s Robert Jacobs, co-chair of the firm’s entertainment, media and sports litigation practice, was interviewed by the Daily Journal for an article on a lawsuit against Jay-Z.
Egyptian composer Osama Fahmy sued Jay-Z for sampling a short riff from the 1957 arrangement “Khosara, Khosara,” which Jay-Z had licensed through a third party. The case made its way to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where a panel rejected Fahmy’s appeal.
Jacobs explained that moral rights are commonly found in countries with civil legal law systems, like France and Germany, and that such systems tend to be statute-based.
“Courts are very reluctant to apply moral rights in a context where there isn’t a basis to do so under U.S. law,” Jacobs said. “So even though Egyptian law may recognize moral rights for this plaintiff, U.S. courts typically wouldn’t.”