DutchNotSleeping t1_j6ijk6x wrote on January 30, 2023 at 4:13 PM

Reply to comment by IAmTheClayman in Rick Astley sues Yung Gravy over alleged Never Gonna Give You Up imitation by redlightist

Did you listen to the song? The entire start is just Rick Astleys song. Like, in the subtitles it even stated it was.

Also, there is def some rights on that, since this is the entire reason Taylor Swift decided to re-record her songs.

I hope Legal Eagle does a breakdown of this though, cause IANAL so I want to see his take

IAmTheClayman t1_j6iklwk wrote on January 30, 2023 at 4:20 PM

Right, except YG got an interpolation license from the rights holder, which means he was legally allowed to recreate the song. Rick Astley is arguing that just his voice is a separate, protected asset, and that YG was not allowed to imitate it.

In the US at least I’ve never heard of that being a thing, and if it is a thing in UK law I would argue that YG doesn’t sound anything like Rick Astley on his song. He’s singing the same notes, but the tone and quality of his voice sounds nothing like the original

DutchNotSleeping t1_j6ilen9 wrote on January 30, 2023 at 4:25 PM

The specific recording falls under a seperate copyright, this is 100% true in the US. And it's not about YG imitating his voice, it's about him using the actual recording of RA in the start of this clip.

Here is Legal Eagle explaining something similar with Taylor Swift https://youtu.be/M-A_RrOeoWw&t=4m36s

For some reason the timestamp isn't working properly but the important thing starts at 4m36s