Development of the Creative Commons Sampling license (or license option)

[Lisa Rein <lisarein AT finetuning.com>]

here's a lawsuit over "interpolation"


http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_820458.html

Woman, 70, suing Eminem and Dre for 'millions'

A 70-year-old Los Angeles woman is suing Eminem and Dr Dre for 
unlawfully
sampling music by her late husband on The Slim Shady LP.

Harlene Stein says one track, Guilty Conscience, features snippets from 
a
piece called Pigs Go Home that her husband Ronald wrote for the score 
of the
1970 film Getting Straight.

She filed a lawsuit last month in the US District Court complaining that
Eminem and Dre used her late husband's music to compose the background
instrumental for the rap song.

Mrs Stein's complaint also names Eminem's music publishing companies and
Interscope Records as co-defendants, reports Billboard.

The liner notes for The Slim Shady LP state that Guilty Conscience 
features
an "interpolation" of Go Home Pigs but Stein is never credited as the 
song's
composer, nor was his wife ever paid royalties.

The suit does not specify damages, which Stein's attorneys are 
calculating,
but they could amount to well more than £2 million.

Mrs Stein is asking for 5% of the retail list price of 90% of the 4.6
million copies of The Slim Shady LP sold in America and 2.5% of the 
retail
price of 90% of the albums sold abroad.

In addition, she wants substantial payments from sheet-music sales and
publishing royalties, as well as punitive damages.

Finally, Mrs Stein asks that Interscope not distribute records with the
sample of Pigs Go Home and that all existing copies be pulled from 
shelves.


Story filed: 12:07 Thursday 18th September 2003