Beyoncé Knowles and Jay Z have scored a legal victory in their Drunk in Love copyright infringement lawsuit.
Monika Miczura Juhasz, known professionally as Mitsou, sued Beyoncé, Jay Z and producer Timbaland a year ago (Dec14), claiming audio of her performing Bajba, Bajba Pelem – a traditional Roma folk song she learned from her grandmother – back in 1995 was taken and “digitally manipulated without her permission” and used during the production of Drunk in Love.
She asked a New York judge to grant her unspecified damages and demanded the track be banned from the airwaves unless her vocals were removed from the song, but Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Kern recently dismissed the case, ruling Mitsou couldn’t use the state’s Civil Rights Law because it only pertains to a “name, portrait, picture or voice used for advertising or trade purposes without written consent”.
“Courts have consistently held that Civil Rights Law does not apply to works of literary and artistic expression,” she writes.
“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.”
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