The former co-leader of Kraftwerk (who now leads a Kraftwerk tribute band also called “Kraftwerk”) Ralf Hütter, has bombed spectacularly in his evident quest to become the Lars Ulrich of electronic dance music. He initiated an ultimately unsuccessful legal action against rapper and producer Moses Pelham, who used two seconds of percussion from Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express song “Metal on Metal” (not to be confused with Metal on Metal by Anvil) in an arrangement for a 1997 song by Sabrina Setlur.
The verdict given this week, letting Pelham off the hook and recognizing sampling as a creative act in its own right, was the second verdict in the case, and overturns the first. That first verdict, rendered in 2012, asserted that Pelham’s use of the sample was actionable because he had the means to recreate the drum beats himself, which seems utterly bizarre, given that Afrika Bambaataa had to pay Kraftwerk a boatload of money for doing exactly that on “Planet Rock.” (I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, blah blah blah blah blah.) Further, Pelham’s lawyer expressed fear that the first verdict could have affected not just sound samples, but the use of photographs in collages and mock-ups, and even some uses of quotations in written works. In that initial verdict, Germany may have effectively outlawed homage, depending on how broadly its conclusion was read.
According to Spin:
…in 2012, Germany’s federal court of justice appeared to agree that it was copyright infringement, citing the fact that Pelham opted to sample despite apparently having the means to record the same sounds himself.
But today, after almost two decades, federal court has now ruled in Pelham’s favor, stating that “the impact on Kraftwerk did not outweigh artistic freedom,” and that ruling against similar artistic interpolations would “practically exclude the creation of pieces of music in a particular style.”
That dull roar you’re hearing in the distance is a legion of troglodyte dullards revving up their invective engines to altogether denounce the practice of sampling in the comments, but fuck them. Collage and pastiche have always been legitimate forms of artistic expression, remix culture is clearly here to stay, and all of our culture is fair game for homage, parody, and commentary. It’s refreshing to see the importance of creative appropriation to modern artistic production—as distinct from mere piracy and plagiarism—legally acknowledged.
That Ralf Hütter of all people filed such a suit to begin with is particularly laughable in its hypocrisy—the sound of an engine revving at the beginning of “Autobahn,” which Hütter long maintained was a field recording of his own car, turns out to have been sampled without acknowledgement from a sound effects collection.
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Ralf Hütter reviews Kraftwerk’s albums, 2009
He was a robot: DM catches up with ex-Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür
Newly unearthed footage of Kraftwerk—with long hair and leather jackets! Live 1970