Well, it's a bittersweet symphony

From the irony, irony, irony files.

No change, I can't change, I can't change, I can't change...

superswell(dot)com : samplelaw : horror stories: "The Verve and The Rolling Stones : Truly Bittersweet
The recently defunct British outfit The Verve sampled an orchestration on their song 'Bittersweet Symphony' from The Rolling Stone's 'The Last Time'. Before the release of the album, The Verve negotiated a licensing agreement with The Rolling Stones to use the sample. In 1997, The Verve's album 'Urban Hymns' peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Charts. What ensued was a bitter (and not sweet) legal battle settling with The Verve turning over 100% of the royalties of their recording of the song to the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones argued that The Verve had violated the previous licensing agreement by using too much of the sample in their song. The Verve argued that The Rolling Stones got greedy when the song became successful. Herein lies the issue of moral rights of a samplist.
'The last thing I ever wanted was for my music to be used in a commercial. I'm still sick about it', The Verve's lead singer Richard Ashcroft said in a recent interview. So, that's exactly what Rolling Stones manager Allen Klein did. Capitalizing off the success of the song, Klein licensed The Verve's 'Bittersweet Symphony' to Nike, who proceeded to run a multi-million dollar television campaign using The Verve's song over shots of its sneakers. Klein also used the song to hark Vauxhall automobiles. Additionally, though the song was authored by The Rolling Stones, the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra performed the recording and also filed suit upon the success of the song. To add even more insult to injury, when 'Bittersweet Symphony' was nominated for a Grammy this past year, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were named the nominees and not The Verve. What could be more 'Bittersweet' than your song reaching the top of the charts and not being able to en"