No trial but Kanye West has to pay Gábor Presser

Earlier Gábor Presser demanded 2.5 million USD from Kanye West for unrightfully using “Gyöngyhajú lány” and now hvg.hu writes that Presser and West came to an agreement out-of-court, so there will be no trials and West will have to pay.

Gábor Presser and Anna Adamis filed lawsuit against Kanye West last May at the New York federal court for using their song “Gyöngyhajú lány” without permission, as an excerpt can be heard during the sample of a Kanye West track, called “New Slaves”, as pagesix.com reports “West’s song samples a full 85 seconds of Presser’s song – in what amounts to more than one-third of the single”.

Presser stated that the agreement is not public, the participants and their attorneys are both obliged to decline giving comments on its content. West used the sample for the final almost 1.5 minutes of “New Slaves”, and even János Kóbor (who sang “Gyöngyhajú lány”) can be heard for a few seconds in the American track.

Beforehand, West stated that he had permission to use the sample, however, Presser and Adamis filed the suit on the account of being given only 24 hours by West’s attorneys to grant their permission. Later, they sent the Hungarians an advance of 10 thousand USD, but, as there was no contract signed, they did not accept it.

So far West’s Yeezus, the album which features “New Slaves” was sold in about 500 thousand copies and the accompanying tour granted him a profit of 35 million USD. Page Six also adds that “[w]ithout a composer’s permission, samplings of any length run afoul of copyright law – despite myths that samples of five seconds, or eight bars, are legally acceptable”.

Besides, Omega’s “Gyöngyhajú lány” has been used by foreign musicians several times before, not only as a sample, but also at whole length. Perhaps the most famous or notable one was “White Dove” by the legendary German band, Scorpions, who performed it in 1995.

Ce: bm

Source: hvg.hu, pagesix.com