In the important case of (C-476/17) Pelham GmbH v Hütter, the Court of Justice of the European Union will decide whether small extracts from recorded music can be re-used in sampling. The proceedings arose from a dispute about the incorporation of two seconds from Metall auf Metall, by iconic German electronic music pioneers, Kraftwerk, in Sabrina Setlur’s, Nur mir rap.
The European Copyright Society’s Opinion on the case has now been published online in the International Review of Intellectual Property Review and Competition Law. It argues that copyright law should be interpreted as generally permitting such minimal sampling from pre-existing recordings. The School of Law’s Professor Jonathan Griffiths was a member of the drafting committee for the Opinion.