Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled on 3 September 2026 that Moses Pelham’s two-second loop of Kraftwerk’s “Metall auf Metall” is lawful as a pastiche from 7 June 2021, applying the pastiche exception to sampling as the Court of Justice of the EU defined it in April. The ruling closes a dispute that began in 1999 and sets the EU test for reusing protected material without a licence. It matters to labels, advertisers and digital creators who build on existing works.<\/p>\n
Kraftwerk released “Metall auf Metall” in 1977. In 1997 Moses Pelham and a co-composer produced “Nur mir”, sung by Sabrina Setlur, with two seconds of its rhythm sequence copied electronically and looped throughout. The band’s founders sued as phonogram producers, performers and, in one case, author. According to the BGH press release No. 162\/2026<\/a> of 3 September 2026, the case went through several rounds before the Hamburg courts and the BGH, the Federal Constitutional Court in 2016 and two references to the CJEU.<\/p>\n This final round concerned only the claims from 7 June 2021, the date Germany introduced section 51a UrhG, which permits reproduction, distribution and communication to the public of a published work for caricature, parody and pastiche. The BGH accepted that the sample interfered with the claimants’ rights, but held it was a permitted use for the purpose of pastiche and confirmed the Hamburg court’s dismissal of those claims. Section 51a implements Article 5(3)(k) of the InfoSoc Directive (2001\/29\/EC), so it must be read as EU law requires.<\/p>\n The BGH applied the definition set by the CJEU on 14 April 2026 in Case C-590\/23 (CJEU press release No 50\/26<\/a>). In practice, the test breaks down into four questions:<\/p>\nHow does the pastiche exception apply to sampling?<\/h2>\n