I remember watching SNL as a youngster and thinking what a great gig it would be to play guitar in the house band. Meet stars, rock out, and work one day a week!
It turns out that the guitarist I imagined being has become one of the biggest producers in the world. Dr. Luke has worked for pretty much everyone who’s had a hit in the last 6 or so years by creating some of the catchiest (or annoying) songs you’ve heard on the radio. Britney Spears, Ke$ha, Katy Perry, have all had a ride on Dr.Luke’s hit stick. But being the biggest hitmaker has it’s problems, like getting sued every other day for plagiarism.
…A number of his songs, including Lavigne’s “Girlfriend,” Chris Daughtry’s “Feels Like Tonight,” and Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” have triggered legal disputes.
If creating songs has its dangers in an era where amateur musiciologists like to go on YouTube and play copyright cop, Dr. Luke seems to have found one legal antidote — the preemptory defamation strike.…Dr. Luke is also currently engaged in a similar kind of dispute with the songwriter Chrissy over claims of copying her song, “My Slushy” to create Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok.” The lawsuit is still pending, but integral to the case is a side-by-side video on YouTube that was posted by one of Chrissy’s fans.
In an interview with American Songwriter earlier this year, Dr. Luke described his troubles this way:
“These days, anyone can put two songs up and make a mash-up by changing the key of this one and say, ‘Oh, these songs are similar.’ A lot of things are similar. But you don’t get sued for being similar. It needs to be the same thing. Almost doesn’t count. Close but no cigar. People are suing for close. There are standard chord progressions that everyone uses. There are plenty of songs that are really similar and they never sued each other. We are a very litigious society today. You can fall on the sidewalk and sue the city.”
“By falsely claiming to Sony Music Label Group that ‘Tik Tok’ infringes ‘My Slushy’, these Defendants caused RCA/Jive… to demand indemnification based on a breach of warranty and representation solely as a result of these Defendants’ baseless claims of infringement. By these Defendants’ wrongful actions, Plaintiffs’ publishing income interest in ‘Tik Tok’ has been damaged.”
…but since plagiarism is a sensitive topic and since defamation plaintiffs can be sensitive folks, it makes sense that mere talk of possible song rip-offs would compel a famous song producer to bring allegations over allegations. Such is the creative age we live in. (More @HollywoodReporter)
Music Consciousness
Voyno
3 Comments
looks who’r being sued now
If you want respect here, then don’t give an “article” a lame title like that, unless you’re going to make a good argument. You make NO argument, you just put that out there like you have something authoritative to add, and simply copy most of someone else’s article.
You bolded a sentence there, and completely missed the irony. Luke thinks he is above reproach because it has to be “the exact same thing.” NO. If you’ve ever heard of the Chiffons vs. George Harrison suit over “He’s So Fine” vs. “My Sweet Lord,” you’d know that years ago that one clearly established that being similar is indeed actionable.
Maybe also you missed the irony over Luke commenting on what a litigious society we have — the context being, “isn’t it a shame.” But he says that and is one of the worst perpetrators — he goes and sues people who complain about something HE did, for defamation. If you bothered to even look into any of the cases, you’d see just how bastardly that is. He writes a song with a theme the Bellamy Brothers used — same idea, similar lyrics. They said, “Hey, wait a minute!” He sued them. He’s done this several times now, abusing the court system with ridiculous cases and wasting a lot of people’s time and money, when he could have just opened up a discussion. THAT is the way MOST people do things. How’d you like to be dragged into court over something you said online, like, say, “He didn’t copy your song, so back the eff off?”
If you like your freedom of speech, even freedom of really lame speech, look past this dude’s musical ability and see just who he is before you make a hero out of him. He’s a jerk.
Waoah woahahaoah.
Yo man, it was just one “article” about Dr. Luke. Chillllll Winston.
I get it, you think he’s not very nice, but times have a changed since “My Sweet Lord”.
As for the title I thought it was funny, it’s too bad you didn’t. I’m sure you and I will get over it.
What I wanted to highlight is exactly what you’ve found – that this man will sue your ass if he thinks you’re going to shit on his name. Chiffons be damned. Life goes on.
I hope you have a good day Jonny Q!