Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
410 F.3d 792 (6th Cir. 2005)
The song "100 Miles and Runnin'" sampled two seconds of a guitar solo from George Clinton's "Get Off Your Ass and Jam," pitched down and looped for seven seconds, using a distinctive playing technique, and was used in the film "I Got the Hook Up" under a synchronization license covering the composition. Bridgeport Music and Westbound (plaintiffs), who held the sound-recording copyright to "Get Off," sued the film's distributor No Limit Films (defendant) for copyright infringement; the district court found the license covered the sampling and, alternatively, that the sampling was so brief and altered that no reasonable jury would recognize it, making the use de minimis.
Whether the de minimis-use defense can apply to a claim of copyright infringement when it is undisputed that a defendant sampled a portion of a copyrighted sound recording without a valid license covering that recording.