On Friday Justin Bieber Accused Of Song Theft With “Sorry” was a top pop story. Yesterday, Skrillex posted video of the original stems of the song and how that sound was developed, showing the distortion and subversion of an earlier version of the song sung by songwriter Julia Michaels.
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Musician Casey Dienel aka White Hinterland had pressed charges against Bieber and Skrillex for copying the vocals of their song Sorry from her track Ring The Bell. Bieber then shared Skrillex’s video, throwing a #wedontsteal, #sorry and a smiley face in a tweet for good measure.
The lawsuit, filed in a U.S. District court in Nashville on Wednesday, says that “the unique and original vocal sample and riff that appears throughout “Ring the Bell” is protected by copyright.
The complaint alleges that the riff is so similar – moving from the notes of B-flat to C to E-flat to F – that Bieber’s team took “Ring the Bell” as a sample and distorted it electronically without her permission.
The lawsuit adds that Skrillex must have been aware of White Hinterland’s work because the two artists were featured in Rolling Stone magazine at the same time on two separate occasions.
The singer allegedly reached out to Bieber to get him to stop using her vocal sample back in December, but her request was ignored.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages which includes profits generated by the hit song.
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If only there were some song lyrics we could use about how it’s too late now to say sorry.
