The copyright infringement lawsuit over Miley Cyrus’ Flowers is outstanding for the big variety of individuals and companies it’s suing – from Cyrus herself to Flowers’ songwriters and publishers, to a number of streaming companies that provide the music, to retailers that promote it.
However attorneys for Miley Cyrus say it’s outstanding for the reverse purpose: The small variety of plaintiffs who allege Flowers ripped off Bruno Mars’ After I Was Your Man.
Cyrus’ attorneys have filed a movement to dismiss the case, arguing that the case has a “deadly flaw”: Solely Tempo Music – the music rights investor that owns part of the rights to Flowers – has filed the lawsuit, and the opposite house owners of the composition, together with Mars, haven’t joined the case.
Tempo Music “brings this copyright infringement motion alone – with none of that musical composition’s co-authors or different house owners,” Cyrus’ attorneys wrote in a memorandum arguing for the dismissal, which might be learn in full right here.
“The Copyright Act expressly offers that solely a authorized or helpful proprietor of an unique copyright proper could sue for infringement. [Tempo Music] is neither and, consequently, it lacks standing to convey this motion.”
Tempo Music introduced the lawsuit this previous September, telling the US District Court docket for the Central District of California that it had purchased a catalog of rights in 2020 from songwriter Philip Lawrence, together with his share as co-author of Mars’ 2013 hit After I Was Your Man. The music has three different co-authors: Bruno Mars, Ari Levine, and Andrew Wyatt.
Tempo’s lawsuit alleges that Flowers “duplicates quite a few melodic, harmonic, and lyrical components of After I Was Your Man, together with the melodic pitch design and sequence of the verse, the connecting bass-line, sure bars of the refrain, sure theatrical music components, lyric components, and particular chord progressions.”
When Flowers got here out in early 2023, many listeners famous the similarity between the music’s lyrics and the lyrics of After I Was Your Man.
For example, After I Was Your Man options the road “I ought to have purchased you flowers and held your hand,” whereas Flowers accommodates the road “I should purchase myself flowers and I can maintain my very own hand.”
Many interpreted this to be an intentional echo of the Bruno Mars lyrics – a “kiss-off” to Cyrus’ ex, Liam Hemsworth, who is alleged to be a fan of Bruno Mars and After I Was Your Man.
Nonetheless, Cyrus’ attorneys deny that any similarities infringe on copyright.
“The allegedly copied components are random, scattered, unprotected concepts and musical constructing blocks,” they wrote.
Musical “constructing blocks” – primary components of a music – aren’t copyrightable.
Tempo’s lawsuit solid a really broad internet, suing Cyrus and Sony Music Leisure, which owns the label on which Flowers was launched, together with Flowers co-writers Gregory “Aldae” Hein and Michael Pollack, and music publishers Harmony Music Publishing, Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp., and MCEO Inc.
It additionally names as defendants streaming companies Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Pandora, SoundCloud, TIDAL, and Qobuz (although not Spotify, the place Flowers is on the market), plus broadcaster iHeartRadio and retailers Barnes & Noble, Goal and Walmart, who the lawsuit says offered bodily or digital copies of Flowers.
It additionally names live performance large Dwell Nation, for promoting the music by Cyrus’ official on-line retailer, and Disney, over a documentary by which Cyrus performs Flowers.
Flowers was the biggest-selling single globally in 2023, in keeping with IFPI. It spent a complete of eight weeks at primary on the Billboard Sizzling 100 and 57 weeks on the high of the Billboard Grownup Up to date chart.
After I Was Your Man, launched a decade earlier than Flowers, topped the Billboard Sizzling 100 in 2013, and has been licensed Platinum 11 occasions by the RIAA.
Cyrus’ attorneys requested the courtroom to dismiss the case “with prejudice,” that means Tempo Music wouldn’t be capable of refile the case. Additionally they requested the courtroom to order Tempo Music to pay their courtroom and authorized charges.Music Enterprise Worldwide
