Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" vs. Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure" trial

Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” vs. Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” trial

Shane Wilder

Case Summary:

After the release of Vanilla Ice’s chart-topping song known as “Ice Ice Baby,” in 1990, it came to the attention of many listeners that Ice had sampled the easily identifiable bass and piano riff from the Queen and David Bowie song entitled “Under Pressure,” originally released in 1981. Vanilla Ice credited and thanked several other artists on the release of his album. However, Vanilla Ice failed to credit the original artists of his highly popular song (Queen and David Bowie), as well as not licensing the sample used from “Under Pressure.’’ Such actions could have resulted in a serious lawsuit against Vanilla Ice, however, this case never went on trial. Although allegations were made saying that the copyright holders of Queen and Bowie’s “Under Pressure,” threatened to sue. The case was settled outside of the courtroom for an unknown sum of money; although, one can assume it was a significantly high amount. As a result, Queen was able to re-release their hit song on their album entitled “Queen’s greatest hits,” as well as being credited for the use of the distinctive riff and received royalties for the sample in Ice Ice Baby.

Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rog8ou-ZepE&ob=av2e

Queen/Bowie’s “Under Pressure” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtrEN-YKLBM

Copyright laws affecting the case:

Had Vanilla Ice gone to court against the copyright holders of “Under Pressure,” he would have likely been sued for disobeying several fair use policies resulting in financial damages for infringing upon the original works made by Queen. Fair use laws allow an extremely limited amount of copyrighted material to be used, but several musicians in the past have fallen victim to such charges. A highly publicized example would be the copyright infringement case between 2 Live Crew and Roy Orbison’s conflicting versions of “Pretty Woman.”

For more information on fair use policies visit the following link!: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

Although a great deal of consideration must be made before deciding the nature of the laws being broken, it was quite clear to the copyright holders that Vanilla Ice had in fact violated these laws. A settlement outside of court is an indication that Vanilla Ice conceded that he had infringed the copyright. Had the copyright holders had decided to sue, Vanilla Ice would have been charged and lost a significant amount of his earnings from the song “Ice Ice Baby.”

Personal opinion regarding the case:

Personally, I would have liked to have seen the case against Vanilla Ice decided in the courts. The distinctive riff sampled from Queen’s “Under Pressure” was a very controversial topic and the settlement does not provide a definitive answer. The extreme, yet conspicuous resolving of this suit makes it a very interesting topic to further research. However, I do find the copyright holder’s decision to have Vanilla Ice pay an undisclosed sum of money, rather than go to trial a somewhat ingenious idea. It saved a sufficient amount of money in legal expenses, generated a lot of publicity and controversy and as a result, Queen was able to re-release their hit song for even greater financial gain.