Dua Lipa and Warner Records win bid to dismiss lawsuit over Levitating copyright
Dua Lipa and music label Warner Records have won their bid to dismiss a copyright lawsuit against hit song Levitating.
The songstress and label were being sued by Artikal who claimed the 2020 tuned copies the core hook from their song titled Live Your Life, which was released in 2017.
Artikal Sound System had out forward a theory that claimed that one of Dua Lipa's co-writers had previously worked with a woman who was allegedly taught guitar by the brother-in-law of one band member.
According to Billboard, in her ruling, U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes appeared to be unimpressed, writing: "These attenuated links, which bear little connection to either of the two musical compositions at issue here.
"Also do not suggest a reasonable likelihood that defendants actually encountered plaintiffs’ song,” the judge added.
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Dua's case has been successful (Getty Images)Judge Sykes also found that there was no sign that anyone involved in the creation of Dua's top hit had had “access” to the little-known song from the reggae group.
However, the band claimed that their song was "widely available" and insisted that one of the writers for Levitating must have heard it, adding that it had been played at concerts and had sold “several hundred” physical CDs and that it was available on some streaming platforms.
Judge Sykes found that the claims were “too generic or too insubstantial” to sustain a lawsuit.
A judge found that the band's claim was "too generic" (Getty Images for Karl Lagerfeld)
Dua released the song in 2020 (Getty Images)She continued: “Plaintiffs’ failure to specify how frequently they performed 'Live Your Life' publicly during the specified period, where these performances took place, and the size of the venues and/or audiences precludes the Court from finding that Plaintiffs’ live performances of the song plausibly contributed to its saturation of markets in which Defendants would have encountered it."
Levitating, released in 2020, is one of Dua's tracks that earned her the honour of being the longest-running top 10 song ever by a female artist on the Hot 100 chart.
The group claimed that it was "unlikely" for Levitating to have been made independently (AFP via Getty Images)Meanwhile, Artikal Sound System released their song Live Your Life on their 2017 EP Smoke and Mirrors. In March, they said that the songs sounded similar and that it was “highly unlikely that ‘Levitating’ was created independently.”
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