Judge Rocks in Kid's Favor

Thu., Dec. 6, 2007 7:22 PM PST by Natalie Finn

The judge wasn't feeling this one.

A federal court dismissed a Louisiana songwriter's copyright infringement lawsuit against Kid Rock on Thursday, ruling that the song that Rock and his fellow defendants had supposedly ripped off was not "substantially similar" to the plaintiff's music.

Troy Landry sued Rock, whose real name is Robert Ritchie; Matthew Shafer, aka Uncle Kracker; John Travis; Kenny Olson and Atlantic Recording Corp. in 2004, claiming the gentlemen ripped off his work in penning the tune "Somebody's Gotta Feel This," which was one of the demo tracks that scored Rock a record deal with Atlantic back in 1997.

The song later ended up in a beer commercial, after which Landry determined that an eight-second portion of "Somebody's Gotta Feel This" that gets repeated multiple times was "strikingly or substantially similar" to something he recorded for a 1994 album.

Two musicologists testifying for Rock begged to disagree, however, saying that the two songs were "distinctly different."

A Tulane University music professor who took the stand on Landry's behalf also said that the two songs as a whole were different and that the hook from the New Orleans musician's tune may have been copied "on a hunch," meaning it wasn't so unique that another person couldn't have conceived it, as well.

"The works are not so strikingly or substantially similar as to preclude independent creation," U.S. District Court Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon wrote in her 14-page decision. Citing both the expert testimony as well as her own experience listening to the songs side by side, she said that "a layman would not view the works as substantially similar."

Rock and Kracker's camp maintained that they had never heard Landry's music before he took them to court and that the allegedly pilfered riff was common enough not to be copyright-protected.

"Judge Lemmon did the right thing in dismissing this case," Rock's personal attorney, Michael Novak, said Thursday. "It was utterly meritless. Unfortunately, the way our justice system works, anybody can sue anyone for any reason and successful artists tend to attract these groundless claims.

"But we are elated the system worked here. Justice is served."

Landry's attorney couldn't immediately be reached for comment.