Kid Rock has been found innocent of copyright infringement after charges were laid against him by a New Orleans man.
Musician Troy Landry claimed that Kid Rock along with collaborators Uncle Kracker, John Travis and Kenny Olson, copied portions of two of his songs for 'Somebody's Gotta Feel This'.Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon this week dismissed the charges in a Louisiana court.
The court found:
- Landry presented no evidence to contradict the Defendants' affidavits
that they had not heard Landry's music and that they independently
created the song in 1997.
- Landry failed to meet the "access" requirement of a copyright case.
- One of the Plaintiff's expert witnesses, Tulane University Associate
Professor of Music John Joyce, conceded that the two songs as a whole
were different. He also said the hook of Landry's song was copied
based on a "hunch."
- Both of Kid Rock's expert witnesses, musicologists Gerald Eskelin and
Anthony Ricigliano, opined that the songs in question were distinctly
different.
- The Court concluded that the works are not so similar as to preclude
independent creation.
In a statement, Kid Rock's personal attorney, Michael Novak, says: "Judge Lemmon did the right thing in dismissing this case. It was utterly meritless. Unfortunately the way our justice system works, anybody can sue anyone for any reason, and successful artists tend to attract these groundless claims. But we are elated the system worked here. Justice is served."
