Jay-Z Sanctioned as “Big Pimpin’” Copyright Trial Date Approaches

On Thursday, May 28, a federal judge in California sanctioned Jay-Z for his failure to properly comply with a discovery request in the current litigation regarding Jay Z’s sampling of the Egyptian song “Khosara, Khosara” for use in his hit single “Big Pimpin’.” Jay Z was ordered to pay plaintiff Osama Ahmed Fahmy $3,000 for the expenses and attorneys’ fees Fahmy incurred while compelling the production of an unredacted agreement between Jay Z and concert-promotion company Live Nation.

Fahmy had originally requested $15,000 in attorneys’ …

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8-Year Old Lawsuit Over Jay Z’s “Big Pimpin’” Going to Trial

The lawsuit over Jay Z’s sampling of an Egyptian tune in his hit “Big Pimpin’” may come to an end in October when a jury decides whether the rapper had the right to use the Egyptian composition.

Claiming that he is an heir of the composer Baligh Hamdy, Osama Ahmed Fahmy in 2007 sued Jay Z as well as Timbaland, Paramount Pictures, Warner Music, UMG and MTV.  He alleged that the rapper sampled the tune titled “Khosara, Khosara” from the 1957 film Fata

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“The Blueprint” for an Infringement?

A recently-filed case in a California federal court has Jay-Z and his promoters at Live Nation wondering whether they’ll continue to reap the benefits of the 1999 hit single Big Pimpin’ or whether they’ll be “spending G’s” to clean up a potential infringement posed by a sample looped throughout one of S. Carter’s most famous tracks.  Last week, an Egyptian plaintiff named Osama Ahmed Fahmy sued Live Nation Entertainment, Inc., seeking unspecified actual damages and costs, alleging Live Nation’s continued “use” of Big Pimpin’ in …

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