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I have been sitting on this one for a while. I remember Run-DMC from way back in the day, along with others from the Queens hip hop scene. And in 1985, I was one of those kids in flyover country wearing parachute pants getting down to “It’s Tricky.” These days I only hear the song as the background music for my XBox game, SST Tricky (recommended for max. fun factor).
Long story short here, “It’s Tricky” sampled a riff from “My Sharona,” by The Knack (one hit wonders that they are, this was their only hit). Apparently, The Knack crawled out of their cave and finally noticed Run-DMC’s song, (I am guessing that they ran out of cash) and have sued for infringment - in the UK. Like Marty Schwimmer of the Trademark Blog, I thought (and teach) that the 3 year statute of limitations runs from the last infringment. Given that, I am puzzled why the article says that the U.S. statute of limitations has ran. As iTunes still sells the song, I would say that infringment is ongoing.
Filed under: 2006 Copyright Cases, Copyright
