October 29, 2006 15:23

50 Cent copyright claim dismissed

Judge rejects 2 Live Crew's claims

50 Cent copyright claim dismissed

A copyright case concerning 50 Cent's 'In Da Club' has been dismissed by a judge.

2 Live Crew’s Luther Campbell claimed that the rapper stole the opening line of ’In Da Club’ from Campbell’s song ’It’s Your Birthday’.

However, on Friday (October 27) Judge Paul Huck ruled that the line of Campbell’s song (“Go Shelia, it’s your birthday”) was a “common, unoriginal and non copyrightable element of the song” which was not entitled to protection.

Judge Huckle found that were no similarities between ’In Da Club’ and ’It’s Your Birthday’.

He added that no reasonable jury would infer otherwise and said that no one would get the two songs confused.

The original lawsuit was filed in January by attorney Richard Wolfe on behalf of Lil’ Joe Wein Music, that holds the copyright to ’It’s Your Birthday’.

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