14 DAY TRIAL // The new Guns N’ Roses released “Chinese Democracy” after many delays in November 2008, moving on to become one of the few albums to have spent over a decade in production stage. Almost a year later, the band is being sued for $1 million on plagiarism charges, after Ulrich Schnauss, a German electronic music artist, claimed some of his samples ended up on the album – a claim manager Irving Azoff strongly denies in a statement to the media and cited by NME.
According to Schnauss, Guns illegally took his music and then ripped several samples off it. One of these samples ended on a track included on “Chinese Democracy,” for which reason he’s asking for $1 million in damages. The only problem is, as Azoff says, that the band did not steal anything from anyone and they’re willing to fight tooth and nail to prove that the claims are unsubstantiated.
“Guns N’ Roses vigorously contests these claims and intends to respond accordingly. The band believed when the record came out and still believes that there are no unauthorized samples on the track. The snippets of ‘ambient noise’ in question were provided by a member of the album’s production team who has assured us that these few seconds of sound were obtained legitimately. Artists these days can’t read the minds of those they collaborate with and therefore are unfortunately vulnerable to claims like this one.” Azoff says in the statement.
The track he’s referring to is “Riad N’ The Bedouins,” which Schnauss claims includes samples from his songs, used without authorization or permission, therefore illegally. While the Guns manager insists that, even if there is the slightest possibility that the samples were used without clearance, then the band is not at fault but the one who provided the illegal samples, Schnauss’ attorney is out for blood – and it has to come from Guns in the form of a $1 million compensation.
“The band and the record company are ultimately responsible for copyright infringement. I can tell you that there is no paper trail authorizing the use of these songs and nobody from the plaintiff’s side authorized the use of this song.” Brian Caplan, Schnauss’ legal representative, fights back.