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Sam Smith, Normani sued for copyright infringement


Teletubby

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Teletubby

A new copyright infringement lawsuit claims Sam Smith and Normani copied essential elements of a 2015 song titled “Dancing With a Stranger” to release their own single by the same name 4 years later.

• In the complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday, songwriters Jordan Vincent, Christopher Miranda and Rosco Banlaoi allege that Smith’s moody, multiplatinum duet with the former Fifth Harmony band member has the “same” title, chorus and composition as the song previously published on Vincent’s YouTube channel, Spotify and other streaming services on Aug. 30, 2017.

• “The hook/chorus in both songs — the most significant part and artistic aspect of these works — contains the lyrics ‘dancing with a stranger’ being sung over a nearly identical melody and musical composition,” the complaint reads.

• The lawsuit offers a side-by-side comparison of the two songs and alleges their attendant music videos are strikingly similar. “Both videos consist of a girl performing interpretive dance alone in a minimalist studio, interspersed with shots of the male vocalist,” the filing states.

• “A girl dancing alone is not an obvious visual theme for a music video titled ‘Dancing With a Stranger,’ tending to dispel any notion that this similarity is a coincidence,” the paperwork argues. 

• According to the filing, Smith and their co-writers on the song, Tor Erik Hermansen and James John Napier, as well as Normani’s manager Brandon Silverstein and her mentor Tim Blacksmith, all had access to the 2017 song, its video and even the video’s call sheet through either Thrive Records or its agents.

• Thrive Records was given the materials in 2015 because the label had been “extremely interested in using plaintiff’s song for another artist,” though “the deal never went through.”

• The plaintiffs say as a result of defendants’ exploitation of plaintiff’s song without permission, they obtained a massive international hit single which generated significant revenue and profits.

 

 

 

"You b*tch!" ~ Rat Boy
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StarstruckIllusion

not again :billie:

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TheOriginalOne

Not the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future coming out of Sam :air:

481-A23-EF-6887-431-F-AA32-16-ECB40-C254

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2School4Cool

The titles are similar but the songs are totally different. I’m so tired of these music lawsuits, it’s like Jackson Maine said, all music is is 12 notes between an octave, 12 notes and the octave repeats. As a result, songs just sound similar sometimes. 

See The Best In Everyone
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gypsy101
7 minutes ago, 2School4Cool said:

I get that the titles are the same

they’re not, the one suing clearly is titled “Dancing With Strangers” not stranger

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2School4Cool
8 minutes ago, gypsy101 said:

they’re not, the one suing clearly is titled “Dancing With Strangers” not stranger

I actually noticed that right after I made my post!

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Mister G

Oh geez another one in the same week Dula Peep got accused of the same over Levitating.

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YoggieBoy

 

This one definitely sounds like a an huge reach to me.  The concept of the video looks a little familiar but the tempo, pitch, everything else...not at all similar. They’re alleging that the chorus is the part of the song that sounds the most alike and it barely does, 

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