UMG wins copyright lawsuit over Mary J. Blige’s 1992 sample

UNIVERSAL Music Group convinced a New York federal court on Tuesday to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit over an allegedly unauthorized sample in Mary J. Blige’s 1992 hit song “Real Love.”

US District Judge Dale Ho ruled that “Real Love” was not sufficiently similar to the Honey Drippers’ 1973 song “Impeach the President” to support Tuff City Records’ case against UMG.

Spokespeople and attorneys for Tuff City and UMG did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision. Ms. Blige is not involved in the lawsuit.

Tuff City said in the lawsuit that it owns tens of thousands of music copyrights “from the genres of Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Jazz, Funk, Soul, Hip-Hop, New Orleans and Latin Music, much of which might otherwise fall into obscurity.” The label has previously filed copyright lawsuits over other songs by high-profile musicians including the Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Ye (formerly known as Kanye West); and Frank Ocean.

The lawsuits against the Beastie Boys and Jay-Z were later dismissed. Ye’s label and Tuff City settled their dispute; while Tuff City dismissed its lawsuit against Ocean’s label two months after filing it.

Ms. Blige’s “Real Love,” from her debut album What’s the 411?, peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1992.

Tuff City sued UMG last year and alleged that “Real Love” used a drum part from “Impeach the President” that the label had failed to clear.

Mr. Ho dismissed the case on Tuesday after finding that the songs were not “substantially similar.”

“The songs do not sound the same; a lay listener would not recognize ‘Real Love’ as having been appropriated from ‘Impeach the President’,” Mr. Ho said. — Reuters