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A British crime show stole the music of Hungarian 1969 hit ‘The girl with pearly hair’
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This is not the first time that Hungarian Omega’s famous song was used without the authorisation of the musicians, songwriters or the rights owner. In 2016, American rapper Kanye West paid 50 thousand dollars because of it.
Misunderstanding?
András Trunkos, the manager of Omega, a very famous Hungarian rock band, said that one of their fans living in England wrote that he heard the song in the trailer of ITV’s new crime series, The Bay. In fact, the British TV channel used the original version of it recorded in 1969 and even singer János Kóbor’s voice can be recognised – blikk.hu reported.
The rights owner of the hit is Hungaroton Records, but they knew nothing about ITV’s plans. “If we knew anything, we would have notified the band and the songwriters as well. ITV used parts of “Gyöngyhajú lány” (‘The girl with pearly hair’) without our authorisation and our knowledge” – said Ildiko Reisz, the editor-in-chief of Hungaroton. She added that
they would take legal steps in the issue.
The speaker for Independent Television was even more close-mouthed. She said that the archive from which they took the song functions in accordance with the law, and nobody told them that they should ask for the permission of the original songwriters, rights owner or the musicians. Anyway,
they deleted the trailer of ‘The Bay’
right after Omega‘s fan called them, and it is still unavailable.
Kanye West paid 44,300 EUR
János Kóbor, frontman of Omega, has never thought beforehand that their song would be in some crime series, but now he thinks that it was a good choice. He added that he would not be angry even if their hit was used in a porn movie. “In the era of downloads, preliminary ask for permission is not lifelike. Posteriorly, everything will be settled” – he highlighted. Moreover, he said that