celeb news Court allows copyright suit over Dua Lipa's Levitating to proceed

[Nefertiti0]

A copyright infringement suit over Dua Lipa's megahit Levitating will go forward, after the artist and Warner Music Group (WMG) lost a bid to have the case thrown out of court.
 

Producer and talkbox artist Bosko Kante sued Dua Lipa, WMG and producer Stephen Kozmeniuk (aka Koz), alleging that a recording he had made was used without his permission on three remixes of Levitating.
 

The complaint asked for at least $2 million plus interest in damages, as well as profits made from the remixes, which it estimated as being at least $20 million.
 

The lawsuit alleged that Kante had been asked by Koz to make a talkbox recording to be used in Levitating, and that they had come to a verbal agreement for the recording to appear in the original album of the song, but not for it to be used in remixes.
 

Earlier this year, Lipa and the other defendants asked the court to dismiss the case on the grounds that Kante had failed to specify which portions of his recording had been used in the remixes, and therefore failed the "substantial similarity" test needed for a copyright infringement claim.
 

In a decision issued on Monday, Judge Hernan D. Vera of the US District Court for the Central District of California denied to the motion to dismiss, declaring that Kante doesn't need to "conduct a forensic analysis of the sound files" at this stage of the trial. 
 

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/files/2024/09/Levitating-motion-to-dismiss-ruling.pdf

source

[Big Bad Wolf]

She should pay up.

[Abracadabra]

Does he actually think that anyone is making $20 million from a remix or is he just pushing his luck because he knows he will have to settle for way less? 

[Johnny Jacobs]

This year wasn't it for miss girl

 

[BlackoutZone]

Well this one is fair, it was an omission on their side and they have to pay up. Not that much tho pff, they will settle for less

 

[J-esper]

Koz should pay it out of his own pocket 

[Raver]

Lock her up! 

[fa77ot]

[Princess Aurora]

[Miley Cyrus]

Dua it's high time you pay up for your thievery and crimes  

[tost1]

Jail Dukagjin and bring her back to TAP!

[The Next Day]

Quote

The complaint asked for at least $2 million plus interest in damages, as well as profits made from the remixes, which it estimated as being at least $20 million.

I guess this includes the DaBaby version which was very successful, but still...

[P!nk]

Can anyone pinpoint for me what his contribution was to the original song? I'm confused. 

[Shimenawa]

No more vacations for Miss Lipa, she'll have to work to pay up!

[Minto]

they're gonna host the court proceedings at the emirates airlines first class lounge

 

 

[Luckitty]

was his recording used in the main version? because there's no way some remixes made $20M

[SoldierofLove]

When the financial reports are released and reveal that the remixes made $20 with autoplay payola at $500k then what. 
 

[popmusicisdead]

the authorities better catch her or she goes Houdini 

[Cesar]

lock her up!

[Nefertiti0]

8 minutes ago, Luckitty said:

was his recording used in the main version? because there's no way some remixes made $20M

It was explicitly agreed that Plaintiff's performance could be used in the original recording of the track–only, and that there would be no sampling or reuse of Plaintiff's performance

All three remixes sampled and incorporated a greater amount of Plaintiff's Work than that used in the original version, including, but not limited to, additional lyrics and melody that were created by Plaintiff, which do not appear in the original version.

The monetary stakes in the case are potentially high, as one of the remixes of the song – featuring rapper DaBaby – has become the most popular version of the song.

On Spotify, the DaBaby version has 2.145 billion streams, compared to 984 million streams for the album version. On YouTube, the DaBaby version has 902 million views, compared to 16 million for the most popular video of the album version.

Another version, the Blessed Madonna remix featuring Madonna and Missy Elliott, has 65 million streams on Spotify and 40 million views on YouTube.
A third remix was created specifically for the American Music Awards on November 2022, in which a sample of Plaintiff's Work was featured prominently

 

[KatyPrismSpirit]

those remixes made that much profit? i feel like many of us underestimate how much money music actually generates cause thats insane. 

[NoOneDiesFromLove]

38 minutes ago, Shimenawa said:

No more vacations for Miss Lipa, she'll have to work to pay up!

No wonder why they made her go on tour next year 

[MatiRod]

16 minutes ago, SoldierofLove said:

When the financial reports are released and reveal that the remixes made $20 with autoplay payola at $500k then what. 
 

AFAIK there is no such thing as autoplay payola 

[Luckitty]

14 minutes ago, Nefertiti0 said:

It was explicitly agreed that Plaintiff's performance could be used in the original recording of the track–only, and that there would be no sampling or reuse of Plaintiff's performance

All three remixes sampled and incorporated a greater amount of Plaintiff's Work than that used in the original version, including, but not limited to, additional lyrics and melody that were created by Plaintiff, which do not appear in the original version.

The monetary stakes in the case are potentially high, as one of the remixes of the song – featuring rapper DaBaby – has become the most popular version of the song.

On Spotify, the DaBaby version has 2.145 billion streams, compared to 984 million streams for the album version. On YouTube, the DaBaby version has 902 million views, compared to 16 million for the most popular video of the album version.

Another version, the Blessed Madonna remix featuring Madonna and Missy Elliott, has 65 million streams on Spotify and 40 million views on YouTube.
A third remix was created specifically for the American Music Awards on November 2022, in which a sample of Plaintiff's Work was featured prominently

 

forgot about the dababy's version 

[Iceland]

Lock her up