50 Cent is breathing a sigh of relief after a judge dismissed a copyright infringement lawsuit which accused the rapper of stealing the opening line for his hit song 'In Da Club' from the 2 Live Crew’s Luther Campbell.
U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck found the line "It's Your Birthday" to be "common, unoriginal, and non-copyrightable element of the song" and was not entitled to copyright protection.
The judge also found the songs, on the whole, to have almost no similarities and the dispute phrase to represent just 11 seconds of the song.
No reasonable jury would conclude that the songs were substantially similar and the average person would not confuse the two songs, the judge added.
The lawsuit was filed in Miami in January of Lil' Joe Wein Music against the rapper.
