Professor Westkamp cited in Kraftwerk Pelham dispute
Professor Guido Westkamp has been cited numerous times and with approval by AG Emilliou in Case C-590/23 (Pelham II).
The now (in)famous litigation - which began in 2002 - concerns the dispute between German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk and hip hop producer Pelham over a two second sample, and includes conflicting decisions rendered by the German Supreme Court, the German Constitutional Court and the Court of Justice for the European Union. The opinion addressed complex issues such as the notion of pastiche, the relationship between authors rights and freedom of art on platforms and the scope of investment-based producer rights, and argues (unusually) that EU copyright legislation needs to change to accommodate new forms of creativity in cases of transformative and referential uses in light of EU fundamental rights.