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Drake Wins on Sampling Fair Use; Plaintiffs' Song Ownership Muddy

While copyright registration normally constitutes prima facie evidence of copyright ownership, the court noted that the estate had registered the song copyright 31 years after it was originally published and only in response to the defendants' sampling of the song on Drake's album.

7 minute read July 01, 2017 at 12:03 AM
By
Vincent Peppe
Drake Wins on Sampling Fair Use; Plaintiffs' Song Ownership Muddy

In 1982, jazz organist Jimmy Smith released an album on Elektra/Asylum called Off The Top. The last track on the album was a spoken-word recording titled “Jimmy Smith Rap” (JSR).

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