Kraftwerk sample acceptable as pastiche, German court rules
By Douglas Clarke-Williams ( September 3, 2026, 10:44 GMT | Insight) -- Germany’s highest court has clarified the conditions under which reuse of a copyrighted work can be justified on the grounds of pastiche, in a ruling on a sampling of Kraftwerk’s song “Metal on Metal” by German rapper Sabrina Setlur.Germany’s Federal Court of Justice, the country’s highest court, has ruled that rapper Sabrina Setlur and producer Moses Pelham’s sampling of part of the Kraftwerk song “Metal on Metal” in Setlur’s song “Only Me” qualified as pastiche and did not breach copyright law....
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