Bushido continues rapping for gold…!

Does rapper Bushido steal music from other bands? This is precisely the allegation brought by the Gothic band "Dark Sanctuary" that Bushido now faced before the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). The court had to decide whether the short musical excerpts used by the rapper in his song "Goldrapper" constituted a copyright infringement.

The Gothic band and author of the song lyrics "Dark Sanctuary" claimed that the well-known controversial rapper Bushido repeatedly used musical excerpts composed by them, without using their text, without having the corresponding right of use. Thus, 13 rap pieces by the artist, including the song "Goldrapper", contained music sections of an average of ten seconds, which originated from the band's original recordings. Bushido used these in his song "Goldrapper" in a loop, i.e. a continuously repeating sound loop, combined them with a drum beat and recorded his rap vocals over them.

"Dark Sanctuary" evaluated the use of the musical excerpts, even without the use of the text, as an infringement of their copyrights and sued Bushido along with the composer of the song for injunction and damages.

The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Hamburg ruled in favour of the band. By using the excerpts in music titles, the rapper had infringed the copyrights of the musical group.

Court's Decision

By judgment of 16. April 2015 – I ZR 225/12 – Goldrapper (the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) dismissedPress Release) – the action brought by the members of the musical group, which was based solely on their copyrights as lyricists. In all other respects, the matter was referred back to the lower court.

Since the defendant had taken only parts of the composed music, but not also the text from the band, there was no copyright infringement in this regard, as the connection between text and music was not protected by copyright.

With regard to the action brought by the composer, the findings made by the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Hamburg were not sufficient to decide whether the sound excerpts were copyright-protected works and whether their use should therefore be prohibited. In particular, it was not yet clear by which objective characteristics the creative originality required for copyright protection of the adopted sequences from the musical pieces composed by the plaintiff would be determined.

Conclusion

The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Hamburg now has to make these findings and must then issue a new judgment. If Bushido remains convicted of copyright infringement, the rapper would have to cease the sale of his rap song "Goldrapper" and pay damages to the composer. Until then, Bushido continues to rap: "German rap is my whore, what I say gets done" (Song lyrics to "Goldrapper").