
BERLIN (AP) - Germany's highest civil court has dealt electronic band
Kraftwerk a blow in ruling that sampling music does not in principle violate copyright.Thursday's decision overturns a Hamburg state court ruling in Kraftwerk's favor that said reusing even the shortest bit of a song infringed on copyright. The Hamburg court will now have to take up the case again. The civil court ruling, however, forbids sampling of a song melody and insists that the sample must be part of a completely new musical work bearing no resemblance to the original.