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Copyright Law - It's Tricky

By Kevin Heller

Rolling Stone via Stereogum is reporting that The Knack is suing Run DMC for sampling the 1979 "My Sharona" in their rap single "It's Tricky" off of the group's 1986 Raising Hell. Which essentially means that The Knack is bringing this lawsuit 20 years after the song was released. I imagine that Run DMC's response may go something like this:

"It's Tricky to file a claim, to file a claim that's right on a time. It's tricky. Here we go."*

Scott from Stereogum also asked "Is there no statute of limitations on this shit?" In response someone posting as fancypantslawyer responded:

"There is a 3yr statute of limitations, but as each play/download/cd-sale is a new infringing violation essentially all the SOL will do in this case is limit the damages to the last 3 years. The Rev and his bros clearly have an argument of "laches" which is a latin word which means: "but dude, its been 20 fuckin years!"

Posted by: fancypantslawyer at September 19, 2006 12:28 PM

The Knack is being repped by Dick Schultz of Schwartz Cooper Chartered in Chicago. The copyright infringement lawsuit was filed on September 15, 2006 in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

* "It's Tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on a time."

Full post as published by Tech Law Advisor on September 19, 2006 (boomark / email).