## Facts

- Bridgeport Music-related entities, including Westbound Records, claimed rights in the sound recording of Funkadelic’s 1975 song “Get Off Your Ass and Jam.”
- A later track, N.W.A.’s “100 Miles and Runnin’,” contained a digitally sampled portion of the Funkadelic sound recording.
- The sample was a brief guitar segment (a two-second, three-note chord) that was lowered in pitch and looped to run longer in the later track.
- No Limit Films used “100 Miles and Runnin’” on the soundtrack of its 1998 film *I Got the Hook Up*.
- The parties did not dispute that the sound recording was sampled and that the sampled track appeared in the film soundtrack; they disputed whether the amount taken could be legally actionable without a license.

## Issues

1. Whether unauthorized digital sampling of a copyrighted sound recording can be excused as de minimis copying.
2. Whether the district court abused its discretion by denying leave to amend the complaint to add infringement claims based on a different song used in the soundtrack.
3. Whether the district court abused its discretion in awarding attorney’s fees and costs under 17 U.S.C. § 505.

## Decision

- Reversed the grant of summary judgment for the film company on the sound recording infringement claim.
- Held that de minimis analysis does not apply to unauthorized digital sampling of copyrighted sound recordings; any such sampling is infringement.
- Affirmed the denial of the motion to amend the complaint to add new claims regarding a different song.
- Affirmed the award of attorney’s fees and costs to the film company under 17 U.S.C. § 505.

## Legal Principles

- A sound recording copyright is distinct from the copyright in the underlying musical composition; sampling typically implicates the sound recording right because it recaptures actual recorded sounds.
- Under 17 U.S.C. § 114(b), the sound recording owner’s exclusive rights include control over duplication that directly or indirectly recaptures the actual sounds fixed in the recording.
- In the Sixth Circuit, once a defendant digitally samples a copyrighted sound recording without authorization, a prima facie infringement is established without regard to the quantity or qualitative significance of the sample.
- The bright-line rule for sound recording sampling does not eliminate other defenses (including fair use), but it forecloses a “too trivial to matter” defense for unlicensed digital sampling.
- Denial of leave to amend and an award of fees under § 505 are reviewed for abuse of discretion, with courts considering case-management concerns and fee factors such as objective reasonableness and deterrence.

## Conclusion

The Sixth Circuit adopted a bright-line rule that any unlicensed digital sampling of a copyrighted sound recording constitutes infringement, rejecting a de minimis defense for sound-recording sampling, while separately affirming the district court’s case-management rulings and fee award.


Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films, 410 F.3d 792 (6th Cir. 2005)