2015 couldn’t come to its close without another win from Jay Z and Beyoncé. The case brought by a Hungarian singer who claimed Bey’s “Drunk In Love” sampled her voice without permission has been dismissed.
Reports Page Six:
The Hungarian Roma, who goes by Mitsou, was shocked when friends heard her singing a cappella for the first 13 seconds of Beyoncé’s song after it was suddenly released without any promotion in December 2013.
“Mitsou’s voice was sampled and digitally manipulated without her permission” for Beyoncé’s Grammy-nominated “Drunk in Love,” the 2014 Manhattan suit charges.
Mitsou, whose full name is Mónika Juhász Miczur, released the traditional folk song “Gypsy Life on the Road” in the US in 1997.
Mitsou was looking for an unspecified amount in monetary damages and also citied emotional distress among her charges. Well, that didn’t work out.
Mitsou sued for unspecified monetary damages, claiming the “blatant unauthorized use of [her] voice for trade purposes is causing irreparable harm and emotional distress.”
But Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Kern tossed the case because Mitsou was suing under the state Civil Rights Law, which only protects a “name, portrait, picture or voice used for advertising or trade purposes without written consent.”
Kern wrote that “courts have consistently held that Civil Rights Law does not apply to works of literary and artistic expression.
“It is undisputed that the ‘Drunk in Love’ song and video are works of artistic expression and, pursuant to well established law, they are therefore exempted from the Civil Rights Law,” Kern said.
The real winner here; Jay Z and Beyoncé’s lawyers.
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Photo: Kevin Mazur – Getty Images/Roc Nation Sports/Golden Boy Promotions
