A federal judge has challenged Miley Cyrus’ attempt to dismiss the copyright infringement lawsuit she faces over Grammy-winning track, ‘Flowers’.
Last September, a suit was filed in a Los Angeles court by Tempo Music Investments claiming that the song included an unauthorised “exploitation” of Bruno Mars’ 2013 track ‘When I Was Your Man’.
Cyrus’ co-writers Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack were also named in the suit, as well as Sony Music Publishing, Apple, Target, Walmart and other companies accused of distributing the track.
Tempo Music said that they own a portion of ‘When I Was Your Man’ after purchasing it from Mars’ co-writer Phil Lawrence. The company sought damages and has demanded a court order that would prohibit Cyrus from reproducing, distributing or publicly performing the song.
In her first response to the suit, Cyrus claimed in November that the case had a “fatal flaw,” namely that Mars and his other co-writers had chosen not to sue, so she called for the suit to be dismissed.
“Plaintiff unambiguously [says] that it obtained its claimed rights in the ‘When I Was Your Man’ copyright from only one of that musical composition’s four co-authors,” said Cyrus’ attorney Peter Anderson last year. “That is a fatal and incurable defect in plaintiff’s claim.”
Their argument is that Tempo’s acquisition of “partial interest” of the song from Lawrence only gives them “non-exclusive rights” to it, and under US copyright law this does not give him “standing” to sue.
“Plaintiff brings this copyright infringement action alone – without any of that musical composition’s co-authors or other owners,” Anderson continued. “Without the consent of the other owners, a grant of rights from just one co-owner does not confer standing.”
In response to the claims, Tempo Music lead counsel Alex Weingarten later told Billboard that the motion was “intellectually dishonest” and that they did in fact have standing to sue.
“They’re seeking to make bogus technical arguments because they don’t have an actual substantive defence to the case,” said Weingarten. “We’re not an assignee; we’re the owner of the copyright. The law is clear that we have the right to enforce our interest.”
Now, following a hearing yesterday (March 10), District Judge Dean D. Pregerson has indicated he believes Tempo Music have satisfactory standing to move forward with the lawsuit.
As reported by Rolling Stone, Tempo lawyer Alex Weingarten said there was a “profound policy issue before the court”, adding that “adopting the rule urged by [Cyrus] would turn the entire music industry, indeed the tech industry as well, on its ear.”
Judge Pregerson went on to say: “If someone wants to buy what someone owns, buy the entire thing, and that includes the right to enforce that ownership against the rest of the world – if you don’t allow that, then you diminish the value of what you’re selling to the point where it may become worthless.”
Monday’s ruling was not immediate, and Judge Pregerson took the dismissal motion under submission after hearing from the pop star’s lawyer, Peter Anderson.
Released in 2023 as the lead single from her eighth studio album ‘Endless Summer Vacation‘, ‘Flowers’ peaked at Number One on the UK Charts as well as the Billboard US Hot 100, spending eight weeks at Number One in the US last year, and 10 weeks in the UK.
It was also was the best-selling global single of 2023 and earned Cyrus two Grammys for Record Of The Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.
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