Photo credit: Justin Higuchi / CC from 2.0
Back in March 2022, Florida-based Artikal Sound System sued Dua Lipa for allegedly stopping work on “Levitating.” Now a federal judge has dismissed the appeal, allowing the amendment.
Judge Sunshine Sykes recently dismissed Artikal Sound System’s lawsuit the band specifically filed against Dua Lipa and Warner Records, as well as “Levitating” songwriters Clarence Coffee Jr., Sarah Hudson and Stephen Kozmeniuk (who is also a producer). .
In short, the plaintiffs allege that the defendants took out loans dating back to 2017 “Live your life” to create the well-known Dua Lipa release that has totaled more than two billion Spotify streams. Artikal Sound claims that “Levitating” was “played at numerous venues, primarily in Florida,” prior to the end of August 2018, when “Levitating” was written and recorded.
And those shows have reportedly featured renditions of “Live Your Life,” coupled with coverage in one of “Jamaica’s leading newspapers,” an appearance in a spot for Delray Beach, Florida’s “Beerfest 2018,” and the availability of streaming service allowed the defendants access to the work, according to Artikal Sound.
Additionally, in its first amended complaint, the Veteran Act highlighted an alleged connection between Artikal Sound member Chris Cope and songwriter Ali Tamposi, who co-wrote “Break My Heart” on Dua Lipas future nostalgia. (The Miami-based production team at the aforementioned Clarence Coffee Jr., The Monsters & Strangerz, produced the track.)
“One of the writers of ‘Break My Heart’, Ali Tamposi, received guitar lessons from plaintiff’s brother-in-law Chris Cope,” Artikal Sound and its legal team wrote. “Plaintiff Chris Cope has been a Facebook friend of Ali Tamposi for years, and plaintiff Cope has regularly posted updates about Artikal to his Facebook page.”
However, as set out above, the presiding judge dismissed these arguments and dismissed the complaint with leave to amend.
Regarding claims that the defendants listened to “Live Your Life” live, on CD and/or via streaming services before creating “Levitating,” the court described the related arguments as “either too general or too petty, to demonstrate access through widespread media.” Distribution.”
“These allegations are not sufficient, individually or collectively, to warrant widespread disclosure,” said Judge Sykes. “The plaintiffs’ failure to indicate how often they performed “Live Your Life” publicly during the stated period of time that those performances took place, and the size of the venues and/or audiences, prevents the court from judging the live performances of the song by the plaintiffs has plausibly contributed to the saturation of the markets in which the defendants would have come into contact with it.”
Regarding the connection between Cope and Tamposi described above, the judge stated that the connection had “little connection to either of the two musical compositions at issue here” and “represented no reasonable likelihood that the defendants actually referred to the song of the plaintiffs had encountered”. the relevant period.”
Eventually, the judge denied the defendants’ motion to move the case to New York, where Dua Lipa is facing another lawsuit (this time filed by Larball Music Publishing and unrelated to “Live Your Life”). Artikal Sound now has until Friday, June 16th to file an amended complaint, with the deadline for defendants to comment on Friday, June 30th.
In early June, the family of “Let’s Get It On” co-writer Ed Townsend appealed the verdict in a high-profile breach of contract lawsuit surrounding Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud.” Meanwhile, 50 Cent and others were named in a new copyright complaint last month that focused on works like “Candy Shop.”