Jay Z Wants Court To Dismiss “Run This Town” Lawsuit

Rihanna isn’t the only one catching heat for the hit song “Run This Town.” Recently Jay Z found himself under fire for the same track when he was hit with a lawsuit for supposedly ripping off a single syllable.

Back in November, a label by the name of Tufamerica filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the mogul claiming he illegally sampled “Hook & Sling” by Eddie Bo.

According to recently revealed court documents, TufAmerica is arguing that Jay illegally sampled the word “oh” from the three-second mark of “Hook & Sling.” The rapper’s team is moving to have the lawsuit dismissed on grounds of inapplicable copyright laws.

"Plaintiff apparently believes that it has a monopoly on the use of the word 'oh' and that it can stop others from using this word in recorded form," states Jay’s motion. "Well-established copyright jurisprudence should allow this Court to disabuse Plaintiff of that notion. First, it is black letter law that words and short phrases are simply not protectable under the Copyright Act. Thus, Plaintiff cannot state a claim based on the alleged infringement of a generic lyric such as, "oh," or the sound recording thereof, and Plaintiffs claims should be dismissed as a matter of law."

This is not the first time TufAmerica has sued rappers for copyright infringement. The company sued the Beastie Boys days before Adam Yauch’s death seeking damages.

Court document finders TechDirt points out that despite Jay’s solid motion, it does not argue fair use of the alleged “oh” sample. It was filed in U.S. District Court's Southern District of New York on behalf of himself, WB Music Corp., Warner-Tamerlane Publishing, Roc Nation, Atlantic and Roc-A-Fella Records.

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[Billboard]