The Enigma Story: A Theft of Cultural Heritage
The song “Return to Innocence”, recorded by the German Group Enigma, was directly mixed from a song recorded years earlier by Kuo Ying-Nan and Kuo Hsin-Chu, known as “Jubilant Drinking Song”. Large portions of “Jubilant Drinking Song” were lifted and copied by Enigma into their hugely popular track. Over fifty percent of “Return to Innocence” contains portions of the “Jubilant Drinking Song”. Although Enigma claimed that it had received permission to copy from a third party, neither that third party nor Enigma had ever received permission from the Kuos. But far worse, Enigma failed to recognize the Kuos as the creators and performers of this work.
The music has sold over an estimated eight million copies world wide, and has been heard by just about everyone in the world. One might have thought the theme was sung by Native Americans. The truth is that native aborigines from a tribe on the island of Taiwan did sing the song. And these singers had no idea that their song was going to be mixed with popular music and heard around the world. What’s worse, given the success of their recording and the millions of dollars generated by their artistry, absolutely no recognition nor compensation haD been awarded to the singers.
In an attempt to redress these wrongs, a lawsuit was filed in December of 1997 in the United States Federal District Court, Central District of California, on behalf of the Kuos. In this case of David- and- Goliath-like proportions, the elderly couple was sparring against German pop group Enigma, Michael Cretu of Enigma, Virgin Record (Germany), Capitol-EMI Music (USA), Charisma Records of America (USA), Mambo Music (Germany), and the International Olympic Committee (”IOC”) for copyright infringement of their music and for failure to attribute them as the original creators and performers of the work.
The Kuos are an elderly (78 and 76 years old) aboriginal couple who belong to the Ami tribe. The Ami are Malayo-Polynesian and descendants of the original inhabitants of Taiwan. They have a distinct language, culture and history separate from the Chinese. While integration efforts continue, the standard of living of the aboriginal tribes continues to lag behind their Chinese neighbours.
The Ami tribe has no written medium. Its history, traditions, songs and stories have been passed down orally through the generations. Members of the tribe are proud of their culture which they celebrate through song and chant. The Kuos are revered throughout the tribe as musically gifted and prolific creators of Ami folk songs. Both the Ami tribe and the Chinese on Taiwan treasure the work of this couple and consider their songs a part of folk history.
The Kuos first learned of the popularization of their music when a friend of the family heard Enigma’s song, “Return to Innocence” on the radio. They were delighted that others appreciated their work enough to include it in their own music. But they were dismayed by the fact that the Ami tribe has received no recognition for their part. When the Kuos asked Enigma about the use of their music in “Return to Innocence,” they were rebuffed. A spokesman for Enigma told the couple that if they think they should be recognized as the arrangers and performers of the song, they’ll have to sue and that it would cost them millions of U.S. dollars in court proceedings.
Angered by the response from the record company and Enigma, many people on Taiwan began to rally for the Kuos. A local Taiwan counsel, Ms. Shiu-Lan Huang, was retained for the case and efforts were made to bring suit against the infringers. Thanks to Ms. Huang’s diligent efforts, an arrangement was made with an attorney in the United States to file the suit in December of 1997.
The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of money and all further releases of the song were credited (including royalties) to the Kuos. It should be noted that the producer of Enigma, Michael Cretu, states that he had been led to believe that the recording was in the public domain, and did not intentionally violate the Kuo’s copyright.
