The bigger the star, the larger the target.
Music’s first couple Beyonce and Jay Z are becoming well acquainted with this old age adage – having both fended off legal claims against them separately this year.
The latest, however, pertained to them both and their 2013 smash ‘Drunk In Love.’
Hungarian singer Mitsou claimed the duo sampled her voice and digitally manipulated it for use on the track without her permission.
That argument was struck down by a judge this week, though.
Find out why below…
Mitsou filed suit for unspecified monetary damages, claiming the “blatant unauthorized use of [her] voice for trade purposes is causing irreparable harm and emotional distress.”
She asserted that her voice (lifted from an original song released in 1997) was used in 1.5 minutes of the 5.5 minute track.
However Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Kern tossed the case because Mitsou was suing under the state Civil Rights Law, which only protects a “name, portrait, picture or voice used for advertising or trade purposes without written consent.”
Kern wrote that “courts have consistently held that Civil Rights Law does not apply to works of literary and artistic expression.
She added: “it is undisputed that the ‘Drunk in Love’ song and video are works of artistic expression and, pursuant to well established law, they are therefore exempted from the Civil Rights Law.”
Per Page Six, the judge also didn’t side with Mitsou’s argument that the Civil Rights Law applies to the song and video because they were both used in HBO commercial as well as the series promoting Bey and Jay’s ‘On The Run’ tour.
On that particular a point, Kern declared that use “does not vitiate their character as works of artist expression.”
Put simply, a win for The Carters across the board.