Dua Lipa won a significant victory in the copyright case thanks to ‘insubstantial’ evidence.
The Albanian sensation has turned heads with her mezzo-soprano vocal range, earning international recognition for her chart-topping songs. Outside of music, the 27-year-old is making waves for her fashion prowess and advocacy.
Last year, the pop star got into legal trouble after a small group in Florida accused her of stealing one of their songs to create her 2020 hit, “Levitating.” However, the reggae band’s claims were found to be flawed at best.
Judge dismisses copyright infringement lawsuit against Dua Lipa for lack of evidence
During a recent hearing for the copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the group Artikal Sound System, Billboard reported that the “One Kiss” singer emerged victorious. The reggae band have accused the 27-year-old of stealing the center hook from their 2017 track ‘Live Your Life’.
During the June 5 ruling, U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes expressed several doubts about the case and the plaintiff’s claims that Lipa was inspired by the band’s song. The federal judge said she had seen no concrete evidence that the artist had ever heard of the song they accused him of copying.
According to Judge Sykes, no proven link existed between the creators of “Levitating” and the group Artikal Sound System. A crucial part of any copyright case is establishing that the other party had access to the information at issue.
In their defense, the Florida band painted a tangle of relationships between them and the famous singer. The plaintiffs claimed that one of the Grammy winner’s co-writers once worked with a woman who was allegedly taught to play the guitar by one of the band members’ brothers-in-law.
Unfortunately, the reggae band’s soap opera connection didn’t shake the judge’s decree. “These attenuated links, which have little to do with either of the two musical compositions at issue here, also do not suggest a reasonable likelihood that defendants encountered plaintiffs’ song,” the arbitrator noted. judiciary in its decision.
Additionally, band Artikal Sound System claimed that their song garnered widespread attention, enough for a member of Lipa’s team to hear it. The reggae band said they performed “Live Your Life” at various gigs and reportedly sold “several hundred” physical CDs.
Their song was also available on some streaming platforms, increasing the possibility of “levitation” from their work. However, Judge Sykes argued that their allegations were “too generic or too trivial” to sustain the infringement suit. The lawyer’s decision reads as follows:
“The fact that Plaintiffs did not specify how often they publicly performed “Live Your Life” during the specified period, where these performances took place, and the size of the venues and/or audience prevents the Court from concluding that plaintiffs’ live performances of the song plausibly contributed to its saturation of the markets in which defendants would have encountered it.”
Although the judge’s decision dismissed the lawsuit against Lipa, the case was not over. Sykes concluded that the Artikal Sound System group could file its complaint again after correcting the errors and the “insubstantial” evidence that it had highlighted.
The Brit Award winner was slammed with a second lawsuit for her song ‘Levitating’
Following Artikal Sound System’s copyright infringement case against Lipa, a second party came out of the shadows and slapped the “New Rules” singer with another lawsuit. Last March, the Albanian beauty faced legal scrutiny for her song ‘Levitating’.
Representatives for the second plaintiffs, L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the 27-year-old. The songwriters, known for tracks “Wiggle And Giggle All Night” and “Don Diablo,” have accused the media personality of stealing their work.
According to the lawsuit: “The infringing works have compositional elements substantially similar to those of the [Brown and Linzer, or BL in the lawsuit] Songs.” The filing added that the melody of Lipa’s hit song matched the rhythm of the Accusers’ music.
“Most importantly, the first defining melody (the signature melody) in the infringing works is a copy of the opening melody of BL’s songs,” the statement continued. “The signature melody is repeated six times in ‘Levitating’ and three times in ‘Levitating (Da Baby.)'”
The songwriters described the AMA winner’s track as a “duplicate” of their songs’ melodies. Their filing claimed that Lipa had “levited the plaintiffs’ intellectual property. Plaintiffs sue so that defendants cannot avoid their willful infringement.