The key passage, from Judge Andrew Carter's opinion Tuesday in Jones v. Atlantic Records (S.D.N.Y.) (all expurgation in original):
The Court finds that the short phrases over which Plaintiff seeks copyright protection are not protectable as a matter of law…. "Because songwriters must be free to borrow sayings and expressions from popular culture, the Second Circuit and courts in this district have found that short and commonplace phrases are not protectable, even when used as the title or repeated lyrics of a song…."
The lyrics over which Plaintiff asserts copyright protection are no more than common phrases, employed frequently in popular culture and other Hip-Hop songs. The concept of using "p**** so wet" as a rhetorical device in a song is neither original nor unique to Plaintiff, and, in any event, "[c]opyright does not protect ideas or themes." Indeed, Defendants have cited at least three examples of works pre-dating GEBTP which use similar lyrics.
Likewise, Defendants have provided examples of at least three songs pre-dating GEBTP which use some variation of the phrase "n****s wild'n". Where the only similarity between two works is not original to the author, a plaintiff's work is not protected by copyright, and thus is subject to dismissal….
Another passage, which is less central but struck me as amusing:
