[EXCLUSIVE] Kanye West Wins ‘Gold Digger’ Legal Battle

The lawsuit accused ‘Ye of sampling the song in his hit “Gold Digger” without permission and sued for copyright infringement. The family sought damages and also an injunction against Kanye from continuing to distribute or perform the song. Kanye denied the allegations in the complaint and said he did NOT illegal sample the song.

Then on August 14th, the federal court judge came back with a decision. The judge sided with Kanye and dismissed the legal battle

The order states that,

In coming to this conclusion, the Court notes that the samples used in each of Defendants’ songs are not only short, but they are also distorted so that the samples are sped up and often presented in a higher pitch. As the following chart illustrates, each of Defendants’ recordings takes only short phrases from the spoken introduction, and in each case the sampled portion is distorted—sped up and in a higher pitch—and accompanied by musical instruments, vocals, or some other musical element that obscures the sampled portion.

The court also noted that the sample used in the song doesn’t infringe on any copyright, although the family claimed they had one. The federal court judge threw out all the claims against Kanye and granted the rapper motion to dismiss the legal battle. Read the Exclusive Court Documents.

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