Rappers Christopher "Ludacris" Bridges and Kanye West were cleared on Thursday of accusations they pilfered rhythms and phrases from a song by a small New Jersey group who had filed a copyright case in a New York court.

The little-known group I.O.F. had claimed Ludacris and Grammy Award winner West breached copyright laws by stealing lyrics and style from their song "Straight Like That," using it for the pair's 2003 hit single "Stand Up." The four members of I.O.F., standing for It's Only Family, said they distributed copies of their song to music executives in 2002 and 2003, only to later recognize elements of their song in Ludacris' "Stand Up," co-produced by West.

Jeff Billingsley, manager of I.O.F., said the group was determined to appeal. "Probably Ludacris feels good that he got over this, but he has not gotten away," he told Reuters. Lawyers for Ludacris and West argued during the case that the first time they heard I.O.F.'s song was when the lawsuit was filed, and that similar rhythms and chorus words "like that" contained in both songs were not original to I.O.F.

The case livened up the normally sober proceedings of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan as lawyers played rap music to the jurors as part of their arguments.

Source: People

Posted by Lawren at June 2, 2006 06:35 AM | Trackbacks (0)

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