Looks like Justin Bieber and Usher might have their own “Blurred Lines”-type legal mess on their hands.
Bieber and his mentor received a major setback in a $10 million copyright infringement lawsuit over the song “Somebody to Love” on Thursday after a panel of judges vacated a previous court’s decision to dismiss the case.
Devin Copeland, an R&B singer who performs under the name De Rico, and songwriter Mareio Oberton filed the lawsuit in 2013, claiming that they wrote the song “Somebody to Love” in 2008, and that Bieber and Usher later lifted the song after Usher heard Copeland’s music and expressed interest in working with him.
“Somebody to Love” was initially put on YouTube as a demo by Usher, with a version by Bieber appearing on the album “My World 2.0” and a remix featuring both Bieber and Usher released in June 2010.
A district judge later tossed out the case, agreeing with Bieber and Usher that “no reasonable jury could find that the Copeland song and the Bieber and Usher songs were ‘substantially similar.’”
However, in the opinion handed down in appeals court on Thursday, a trio of judges found otherwise.
“After listening to the Copeland song and the Bieber and Usher songs as wholes, we conclude that their choruses are similar enough and also significant enough that a reasonable jury could find the songs intrinsically similar,” the ruling reads.
The judges also cited an “almost identical rhythm” and a “strikingly similar melody.”
The ruling concluded that the similarities are such that they present “a close enough question that it cannot be disposed of as a matter of law and should instead be decided by a jury.”
The judges added that they are remanding the case for further proceedings.
Listen to the Bieber-Usher song below, and click here for the De Rico version:
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.