Madonna wins lawsuit over 'Vogue' horn hits

Madonna topped charts around the world in 1990 with Vogue, a beautifully produced track under the guidance of Robert "Shep" Pettibone.

It took the company VMG Salsoul twenty years and "new technology" to decide that two horn hits on Vogue were sampled from the 1983 record Love Break by the Salsoul Orchestra which was a remix of their 1976 recording Chicago Bus Stop. The company stated that the horn notes were "deliberately hidden"; however, if you listen to the two songs on the Who Sampled website, those horns are not only quite evident, but are a memorable part of the track.

Adding to the complications of the case, Pettibone was the one that did the remixes on the 1983 track.

Nonetheless, a U.S. District Judge out of California has ruled that the allegedly sampled part was "trivial" and ruled in favor of Madonna and Pettibone.

The ruling states "Plaintiff alleges copyright infringement for the appropriation of a single horn stab ("Horn Hit") from Plaintiff's work, Love Break. The Horn Hit is a single chord that is played eleven times in Defendants' work, Vogue. The Court finds neither the chord nor the Horn Hit sound sufficiently original to merit copyright protection. Even if the alleged appropriation was subject to copyright protection, the Court finds that any copying was de minimis."

Later, it is stated "Having listened to the sound recordings of Chicago Bus Stop, Love Break, and Vogue, the Court finds that no reasonable audience would find the sampled portions qualitatively or quantitatively significant in relation to the infringing work, nor would they recognize the appropriation. The Court finds that any sampling of the Horn Hit was de minimis or trivial."

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