Mac Miller is headed to court again for not clearing an artist’s sample on a mixtape. Warm Speakers, real name Patrick Berlinquette, is suing Mac Miller, Rostrum Records and DatPiff for $10M for illegally sampling his song “The World Around You”.
The suit states that Berlinquette copyrighted the song on June 20, 2011. Miller used the instrumental on his “Fuck ‘Em All” from his Macadelic mixtape. On the lawsuit it states that Miller used the chorus, and rhymed over the track “without [Berlinquette’s] permission or knowledge].”
This could be a result of Lord Finesse suing Miller for $10M just last month for beat-jacking his “Hip 2 Da Game” track. It was believed that Finesse’s lawsuit could open the gates for similar lawsuits by setting precedence, and it appears that is the case. According to the filed suit “[Miller] uses other people’s music because it’s easier, cheaper, and faster than creating his own, Miller seeks to capitalize on the common misconception in Copyright Law that people whose music he takes have no remedy if he gives their music away for free.”
Berlinquette is suing for willful infringement; violation of Copyright Law and New York’s General Business Law; and is seeking a permanent injunction. He is also suing for damages and seeks to recoup "no event less than $10 million."
We’ll update you as these two cases develop as they could have serious ramifications on how rappers sample music.
(Shout out to HipHopDX on the story).