{"id":1715,"date":"2017-03-13T02:10:35","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T06:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/?p=1715"},"modified":"2023-07-25T11:56:21","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T15:56:21","slug":"when-morality-and-copyright-collide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/2017\/03\/when-morality-and-copyright-collide\/","title":{"rendered":"When Morality and Copyright Collide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/4078427259_9da7cdcd89_z.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1716\" src=\"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/4078427259_9da7cdcd89_z-243x300.jpg\" alt=\"0611510 (BC-VNU-JAYZ) JAY-Z. VNU DIGITAL PHOTO. CR: ANTHONY MANDLER. *PHOTO EDITOR NOTE: PHOTO ONLY TO BE USED EXCLUSIVELY WITH BILLBOARD'S JAY-Z FEATURE (BC-VNU-JAYZ). DO NOT ARCHIVE OR REUSE PHOTO FOR ANY OTHER EDITORIAL COPY. *\" width=\"243\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/4078427259_9da7cdcd89_z-243x300.jpg 243w, https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/4078427259_9da7cdcd89_z.jpg 405w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 243px) 100vw, 243px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As reported by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.completemusicupdate.com\/article\/new-filing-in-moral-rights-action-against-jay-z\/\">Complete Music<\/a>, in early March 2017, relatives of the late Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdi filed new papers in their ongoing appeal of a moral rights claim against music\u00a0icons Jay-Z and Timbaland. The case <a href=\"http:\/\/www.completemusicupdate.com\/article\/jay-z-in-the-house-as-big-pimpin-case-gets-underway\/\">began in 2007<\/a>, when Hamdi\u2019s family alleged that Jay-Z and Timbaland\u2019s sampling of Hamdi\u2019s music in their 2000 smash hit, \u201cBig Pimpin,\u201d amounted to copyright infringement. Although Timbaland had licensed the sample from EMI and its Egyptian partner, Hamdi\u2019s family argued that those companies did not actually have the right to license Hamdi\u2019s work. Furthermore,\u00a0Hamdi\u2019s family claimed that, even if other parties had control of the copyright in the sample, licensing it for Jay-Z and Timbaland to use in \u201cBig Pimpin\u201d infringed on Hamdi\u2019s moral rights.<\/p>\n<p>Under Egyptian law, composers retain the moral rights over their work even if they do not own the actual copyright, which means that composers have some control over how their work is adapted by others. In this instance, Hamdi\u2019s family claims that Jay-Z and Timbaland\u2019s use is a \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.completemusicupdate.com\/article\/moral-rights-case-against-jay-z-allowed-to-proceed\/\">mutilation<\/a>,\u201d a \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.completemusicupdate.com\/article\/new-filing-in-moral-rights-action-against-jay-z\/\">vulgar<\/a> and unfortunate distortion of [his] work,\u201d and that Hamdi\u2019s music should not be associated with the track\u2019s content.<\/p>\n<p>Although the defense argued that Egyptian law shouldn\u2019t apply in American courts, a US judge <a href=\"http:\/\/www.completemusicupdate.com\/article\/moral-rights-case-against-jay-z-allowed-to-proceed\/\">allowed the case to proceed<\/a> in 2011 because it found that the case had sufficient support in US law. However, after testimony from Egyptian law experts, the court determined that Hamdi\u2019s estate did not have enough standing to pursue the action and dismissed the claim in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.completemusicupdate.com\/article\/new-filing-in-moral-rights-action-against-jay-z\/\">2015<\/a>. Nevertheless, Hamdi\u2019s family is currently appealing the ruling and seeking a new hearing by a new judge, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.completemusicupdate.com\/article\/new-filing-in-moral-rights-action-against-jay-z\/\">claiming<\/a> that the late composer \u201cowns, under the law of the country of origin of his copyright, the right to protect his copyright from fundamental changes,\u201d and that this right is recognized by the US Copyright Act. US copyright law generally does not acknowledge moral rights, so it will be interesting to see how a US court, unfamiliar with the concept of moral rights, will handle the family\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prudence Ng is a Sports and Entertainment Highlight Contributor for the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and a current first year student at Harvard Law School (Class of 2019).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As reported by Complete Music, in early March 2017, relatives of the late Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdi filed new papers in their ongoing appeal of a moral rights claim against music\u00a0icons Jay-Z and Timbaland. The case began in 2007, when Hamdi\u2019s family alleged that Jay-Z and Timbaland\u2019s sampling of Hamdi\u2019s music in their 2000 smash [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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