Grand Upright Music v. Warner Bros. Records, 02-cv-01662-RPM  780 F. Supp. 182 (S.D.N.Y. 1991)

This case involves Biz Markie's sampling of Gilbert O'Sullivan's, "Alone Again (Naturally)" for a song on Markie's album I Need A Haircut. Markie, under Warner Bros. Records, claimed that his sampling of 3 words and a small portion of O'Sullivan's song was fair use because Grand Upright Music did not have a valid copyright of the song. This turned out to be false as it was learned that Sullivan had indeed transferred the rights of the song to Grand Upright Music.

This is an important case to look at because unlike 2 Live Crew, who were told that they could not use the original work and did it anyway, Markie claimed that he sampled a song that he legitimately believed the rights were up in the air for. Also, 2 Live Crew set a precedent for the rap industry to begin using samples, whether they were approved of or not. This became part of rap music itself, and this point was argued by Markie's camp. The court did not factor this into their decision, ruling for an injunction against Warner Bros. citing that there was evidence that they tried to obtain permission for the song and was not able to, and thus had infringed on Grand Upright Music's rights. Their ruling was also rooted in the fact that the album could become commercially successful using a song that willfully infringed upon the rights of another.

Rap music as stated above hinges on the fact that sampling is part of the industry. Markie's loss in court serves as an antithesis to what happened in the 2 Live Crew case. Here, a rapper is penalized for sampling a song, even with the attempt of trying to secure the rights. Instead of rappers and producers gaining more confidence in sampling music, this case most likely drove some away. At that point, it could even be seen as the catalyst to a fall in the genre. It also sent a message that the attempt to obtain rights was not heavily valued, just whether they were attained in the end or not.