{"id":114888,"date":"2026-04-14T15:49:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/?p=114888"},"modified":"2026-04-14T15:49:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:19:49","slug":"eu-court-of-justice-clarifies-the-scope-of-the-exception-for-pastiche-in-relation-to-sampling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/?p=114888","title":{"rendered":"EU Court Of Justice Clarifies The Scope Of The Exception For \u2018Pastiche\u2019 In Relation To Sampling."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luxembourg; April 2026<\/strong>: That exception is aimed at safeguarding a fair balance between copyright protection and the protection of the freedom of the arts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the context of a long-running dispute regarding the reproduction of a sample from a track of the German band Kraftwerk, the Court of Justice clarifies the scope of the exception for \u2018pastiche\u2019, which allows the use of elements of a work that are protected by copyright without the prior authorisation of rightholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Court finds, inter alia, that that exception covers creations which evoke one or more existing works, while being noticeably different from them, and which use, including by means of sampling, some of those works\u2019 characteristic elements protected by copyright, in order to engage with those works in an artistic or creative dialogue that is recognisable as such. That dialogue can take different forms, in particular the form of an overt stylistic imitation of those works, of a tribute to them or of humorous or critical engagement with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German band Kraftwerk published, in 1977, a phonogram containing the track \u2018Metall auf Metall\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two founders of that band brought proceedings before the German courts against the two composers of the song \u2018Nur mir\u2019 and the producer of the phonograms on which that song appeared in 1997 (and, again, in 2004), Pelham GmbH. They claim that those composers and that producer infringed, inter alia, their copyright-related right that they hold as producers of phonograms by electronically copying a sample of approximately two seconds of a rhythm sequence from the track \u2018Metall auf Metall\u2019 and using that sample in a continuous loop in the song \u2018Nur mir\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that dispute, which has continued for over 20 years, the question has not been settled as to the lawfulness of that sample, after 7 June 2021, where used for the purpose of \u2018pastiche\u2019. On that day, an exception to copyright and to the rights of phonogram producers entered into force in Germany, authorising, for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche, the reproduction, distribution and communication to the public of a published work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since that exception has its origin in EU law, the Federal Court of Justice asked the Court of Justice to clarify the scope of the concept of \u2018pastiche\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Court of Justice answers that the exception for \u2018pastiche\u2019 5 covers creations which evoke one or more existing works, while being noticeably different from them, and which use, including by means of sampling, some of those works\u2019 characteristic elements protected by copyright, in order to engage with those works in an artistic or creative dialogue that is recognisable as such. That dialogue can take different forms, in particular the form of an overt stylistic imitation of those works, of a tribute to them or of humorous or critical engagement with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order for a finding to be made that use is \u2018for the purpose\u2019 of pastiche, it is sufficient that the \u2018pastiche\u2019 nature be recognisable for a person who is familiar with the existing work from which the elements have been borrowed. A finding that the user intended to use the work for that purpose is therefore not necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Court notes that that interpretation of the exception for \u2018pastiche\u2019 ensures a fair balance between the protection of the freedom of the arts and copyright protection, as well as legal certainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is for the Federal Court of Justice to rule on the dispute pending before it by taking account of the answers provided by the Court of Justice. In its order for reference, the Federal Court of Justice noted that, based on the findings made by the previous court, the song \u2018Nur mir\u2019 artistically engages with the rhythm sequence taken from the track \u2018Metall auf Metall\u2019, which is in a different music genre, while being, despite the reduction in tempo and the metric modulation, recognisable as alluding to the original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Maverick<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luxembourg; April 2026: That exception is aimed at safeguarding a fair balance between copyright protection and the protection of the freedom of the arts. In the context of a long-running dispute regarding the reproduction of a sample from a track of the German band Kraftwerk, the Court of Justice clarifies the scope of the exception …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":114889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[81],"post_format":[],"flags":[],"class_list":["post-114888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114890,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114888\/revisions\/114890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/114889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114888"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_format&post=114888"},{"taxonomy":"flags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fflags&post=114888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}