Support our efforts, sign up to a full membership!
(Start for free)
Register or login with just your e-mail address
Pop / Rock 14/11/2001

Robbie faces damages for copying lyrics

Hot Songs Around The World

Water
Tyla
328 entries in 20 charts
Lose Control
Teddy Swims
388 entries in 25 charts
Beautiful Things
Benson Boone
234 entries in 26 charts
Houdini
Dua Lipa
313 entries in 26 charts
Lovin On Me
Jack Harlow
327 entries in 23 charts
Stick Season
Noah Kahan
359 entries in 20 charts
Si No Estas
Inigo Quintero
303 entries in 17 charts
Yes, And?
Ariana Grande
195 entries in 27 charts
Overdrive
Ofenbach & Norma Jean Martine
186 entries in 14 charts
Anti-Hero
Taylor Swift
620 entries in 23 charts
Greedy
Tate McRae
682 entries in 28 charts
NEW YORK (AP) - Robbie Williams has faced a demand for "punitive" damages following a court ruling that lyrics for one of the songs he co-wrote were "substantially" copied from the singer Woody Guthrie.

London's High Court stated last October that Jesus in a Camper Van, co-written with Guy Chambers , was a breach of copyright from Guthrie's song I Am The Way, and of an adaptation of the song by Loudon Wainwright III.

The song appeared on William's highly successful second album I've Been Expecting You, as well as the US compilation The Ego Has Landed.

Now a judge has begun hearing legal argument on the amount of compensation to be awarded to the copyright holders, New York-based Ludlow Music.

It will have to be paid by Williams, Chambers, and the singer's record and publishing companies.

Ludlow's barrister, Pushpinder Saini, told Mr Justice Pumphrey that the music company had been willing from the outset of the dispute to grant a licence on condition that it received 50% of the royalties from the Williams song.
But the defendants, who offered no more than 25%, sanctioned release of the recording on the Chrysalis label without Ludlow's authority.

Mr Saini said: "Well before any commercial release of the album by Chrysalis, these defendants were fully aware that unless they agreed to Ludlow's licensing terms, they had no authority to permit the release."

He added that this conduct required the court's "condemnation" in the form of a punitive damages award over and above the basic 50% royalty.

"Persons in the position of the defendants must be deterred from infringing copyright," he said.

Williams and his record and publishing companies now face the trial to determine the amount of royalties or damages owed to the owners of the original copyright, Ludlow Music.

Guthrie's song, written in 1961, includes the line "Every good man gets a little hard luck sometimes" while the Loudon Wainwright version, described by the judge as a parody, ran: "Every Son of God gets a little hard luck sometimes, especially when he goes round saying he is the way."

In the Williams and Chambers song the lines were: "I suppose even the Son of God gets it hard sometimes, especially when he goes round saying I am the way."

*** Jennifer Lopez to launch tour at Stockholm party STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - American singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, known to her fans as J-Lo, plans to boost her popularity in Europe with a tour of the continent launched at a party in Sweden, her record company Sony Music said Tuesday.

"J-Lo is huge in the United States but not as big in Europe. That's why she's embarking upon this promotion tour, starting with Sweden, which is a key market," Katrin Persson, spokeswoman at Sony Music Sweden, told Reuters.

The party on Nov. 20, expected to attract rock band Roxette and Swedish princesses Victoria and Madeleine, will include the premiere of a television film featuring Lopez in her family's native Puerto Rico.

The program is directed toward fans and includes interviews with Lopez, who won the MTV Europe Music Award last week for best singer, as well as scenes from the star's concert on the Caribbean island in September.

Her latest album "J. Lo" has sold more than 7 million copies, Persson said. The video to the song "Ain't It Funny" from the album will also be shown at the party.

The Latino beauty, whose revealing dresses have attracted much media attention, will also appear on a popular television show in Sweden.






Most read news of the week


© 2001-2024
top40-charts.com (S4)
about | site map
contact | privacy
Page gen. in 0.3030231 secs // 4 () queries in 0.0043890476226807 secs