Guns N’ Roses Hit With Copyright Lawsuit

Welcome to the lawsuit.

Guns N’ Roses are being sued for $1 million for allegedly copying songs which found their way onto the talked-to-death and eventually released in 2008 album Chinese Democracy.

Two independent record labels, Independiente and Domino, are suing Guns n’ Roses and Universal Music Group, claiming a song off Chinese Democracy copied portions of two songs by German music artist Ulrich Schnauss.

According to Reuters, the lawsuit says Guns N’ Roses’ “Riad N’ the Bedouins” used parts of Ullrich’s “Wherever You Are” and “A Strangely Isolated Place” without permission.

Rolling Stone reports that the lawsuit “focuses on 45 seconds of ambient soundscapes at the beginning of “Riad N’ the Bedouins,” before the song breaks into full guitar assault that shares no resemblance to Schnauss’ body of work.”

Ambient soundscapes! This is not going to be easy for the labels to prove; the Schnauss songs debuted in 2001 and 2003, and meanwhile the long and winding road behind Chinese Democracy takes up at least a decade’s worth of recordings and production. One would almost expect a little ambient sound to harmlessly find its way into the recording process, even if it maybe, just maybe, resembles material from an artist who deals in techno and electronica. It happens! Who knew Axl Rose was a fan of Ulrich Schnauss?

But seriously, it’s doubtful Axl and Co. can be found guilty of blatantly trying to infringe on the copyright of Mr. Schnauss. Unless the plaintiffs have a signed letter from the band demanding they get to use Schnauss’ songs on their album, it’s going to be a tough sell. Still, crazier things have happened.

Either way, somewhere Coldplay just breathed a sigh of relief.

Listen to a clip of ‘Riad N’ the Bedouins,’ here.

Does Schnauss have a case against GnR?