October 7, 2009 4:53

Guns N’ Roses 'vigorously contest' claims they've copied songs

Band believe they've done nothing wrong

Guns N' Roses have denied they have sampled songs after being hit with a $1million lawsuit last week.

Legal papers claim that the band illegally copied songs from Ulrich Schnauss which ended up on their last album, 'Chinese Democracy', but the band are now challenging those accusations.

"Guns N' Roses vigorously contests these claims and intends to respond accordingly," the band’s manager Irving Azoff said in a statement. "The band believed when the record came out and still believes that there are no unauthorised samples on the track."

The songs in question by the German electronic musician Ulrich Schnauss, were apparently sampled on the song 'Riad N' The Bedouins' and Schnauss' attorney told Rolling Stone that Guns N' Roses had no clearance to use them.

"The band and the record company are ultimately responsible for copyright infringement," suggested Brian Caplan, Schnauss' attorney. "I can tell you that there is no paper trail authorising the use of these songs and nobody from the plaintiff's side authorised the use of this song."