Music: Sampling New Millenium Style - One Chord Is Too Much
Opening three-note chord was enough to maintain a claim for infringement on a "sampling" theory.
In 2001, Bridgeport Music (whose business is owning and exploiting copyrights in musical compositions) alleged that a rap song "99 Problems" sampled the opening three-note chord from the musical compostion "Get Off Your Ass and Jam".
"99 Problems" was co-written and performed by the artist known as Ice-T (Tracy Morrow). The court battle went though a number of twists and turns, focusing on who owned what and when, and utlimately went up the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (Nashville).
Neither the trial court nor the apellate court said that sampling did not occur or that the alleged sampling was insufficient to constitute copyright infringement.
The reason Bridgeport failed to collect was the court found that a release had been executed as part of a setltement prior to the lawsuit.
http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/6th/04a0233p.html
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