A four-second spoken-word sample has kept Beyoncé's record label tied up in federal court for over a year. Court filings show that Parkwood Entertainment, LLC, has twice defeated a copyright lawsuit over the sample that opens 'Alien Superstar', only for the underlying dispute to resurface again this month.
Beyoncé herself has never been named as a defendant in the case. The suit instead targets Parkwood, alongside Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell, and musician John Holiday, over rights to the sample heard at the very start of the 2022 Renaissance track.
