Robbie Williams gets out of trouble in a camper van

Robbie Williams escaped a demand for "punitive" damages yesterday for using a lyric by the American folk singer Woody Guthrie without permission on his best-selling album I've Been Expecting You.

But the singer was ordered to remove the track "Jesus In A Camper Van" from all future copies of the album, which sold more than two million in 1998.

The High Court ruled in 2000 that the track copied substantially from a 1961 Woody Guthrie song, "I Am The Way", as well as a 1973 version of it by Loudon Wainwright III, and awarded damages to Ludlow Music, a New York company that owned the copyright to both songs.

Ludlow had demanded 50 per cent of royalties from the Williams' song plus punitive damages but Mr Justice Pumphrey ruled yesterday that the company was entitled to only 25 per cent. That was the amount originally offered by the publishers for Williams and his co-writer Guy Chambers when they asked to use the lyric.

The judge said that the copyright infringement was not "cynical or flagrant" and was committed in the expectation that an agreement would be reached. Additional damages were not justified.

Mr Justice Pumphrey said the song had no particular "staying power" and did not seem to have lodged in the public imagination. It had made only about £190,000, so the 25 per cent award plus interest would be swallowed by legal costs. They are estimated at a five-figure sum for both sides.

Granting both sides leave to appeal, he said he had "grave doubts as to who has actually won this case". The court heard that Ludlow was willing to grant a licence for use of the lyrics only on condition that it received half the royalties but EMI Music Publishing and BMG Music Publishing sanctioned release of the recording without Ludlow's authority.

Deputy Judge Nicholas Strauss ruled after the first hearing that Ludlow was entitled to substantial and "possibly exemplary" damages.

Both the Williams' song and Wainwright's version of Guthrie's original took a wry look at evangelists. Guthrie's lyric, "Every good man gets a little hard luck sometimes", is developed on Williams' track to: "I suppose even the Son of God gets it hard sometimes, especially when he goes round saying he is the way."

Williams, Chambers, EMI and BMG admitted using the Wainwright version but denied using a "substantial part".