After nearly eight years of litigation, Jay Z's lingering lawsuit of the allegedly improper use of an Egyptian sample by his then producer Timbaland (co-defendant in the case) is likely headed to trial. The trial is set tentatively scheduled for October 13 after the judge indicated she would likely deny the plaintiff Osama Ahmed Fahmy's motion for summary judgment against the "Magna Carta" rapper. The lawsuit is centered on the song, "Khosara, Khosara" used in the 1960 Egyptian film Fata Ahlami, which was turned into the hook for Jay Z and Timbaland's 2000 hit, "Big Pimpin'".
Fahmy claims he's the heir to Balight Hamdy, the composer of "Khosara Khosara" and sued the rapper and producer nearly eight years ago for infringement, also naming MTV, Warner Music, UMG and Paramount Pictures among the defendants.
Timbaland made a deal with EMI Arabia to license the work, which had a deal with Egyptian record label Sout el Phan. This is where Fahmy contends the record label never had the authority to license the track to Timbaland.
"That's the real problem here," argued Fahmy's attorney, Keith Wesley of Browne George Ross, in court Monday via The Hollywood Reporter. "Sout el Phan said, 'EMI Arabia, you can use it, but you can't go out and give away rights to someone else. I don't have authority to do that, and the copyright owner hasn't given me rights to do that.' "
According to Fahmy, Sout el Phan had licensed the track to EMI Arabia, but that had expired in 2007 and while he had licensed the song to the EMI affiliate, the label still needed to run any potential deals by him first.
The record company's lawyer, David Steinberg of Mitchell Silberg & Knupp contends that EMI Fahmy did give EMI consent to license the composition.
He had the chance to say, 'I don't want to allow sublicenses.' The whole notion of whether he consented to them is frankly undisputed," said Steinberg. "At very least there's an issue of fact," he added.
Listen to sample below and see for yourself.
