It seems Disclosure and Aluna George may be in a spot of legal trouble. The British artists are being sued by songwriter Katie Farrah Sopher, who claims the lyrics to ‘White Noise’, ‘You and Me’, and even the smash-hit ‘Latch’, were her original creations. Sopher is also claiming she wrote the lyrics to Aluna George‘s solo track, ‘Attracting Flies’.
Apparently, the songs use lyrics written in one of Sopher‘s songbooks, which was “stolen by a ‘violent’ ex-boyfriend, Sean Sawyers, in 2009″. Sawyers then handed off the songbook to his contacts in the music industry with no consent from Sopher; as the lyrics were inspired by the abuse she suffered during her time with him, she is seeking £200,000 in damages.
Sawyers denied all allegations, stating:
I am denying all the allegations… There is zero truth to the claims made against me. I never saw the book the claimant mentions… [so] I could not have committed the alleged damages, theft, (and) copyright infringement.
Let us know what you think of this strange situation in the comments below.
[Source: Pitchfork]
[Photo Credit: inthemix.com]
The song is out for years but now it has over a 100 million views and their album was nominated for a grammy it suddenly matters?
I can’t even find her on spotify, it’s irrelevant.
I am all for open development/creative commons/and artistic cultural evolution. Which means moving away from the monetization of music and art and allowing people to draw inspiration from others work. I do however draw the line at blatantly stealing someones lyrics.
where is the book? Sounds to me like there is zero evidence besides some baseless claims unless the book is found
The only way she will win the case is if they find the songbook and prove that it was written before the songs released by Disclosure were written, and claiming her ‘violent ex-boyfriend’ stole it and gave it away pretty much means she hasn’t got it and just wants the £200,000.
This sure didn’t matter when it first came out, but now that they start making a lot of money for it, she just now cares?
Even if the lyrics were stolen, the production wasn’t. Disclosure isn’t at fault.
those songs have been out for almost 3 years now… enough said. we’ll she far she gets with this.
Talk about unknown. There are literally no mention of her on the Internet prior to this case.
Yeah, this is so vague and has no immediate connection to any of the accredited songwriters