Music piracy is the copying and distributing of recordings of a piece of music for which the rights owners; composer, recording artist, or copyright-holding record company) did not give consent. In the contemporary legal environment, it is a form of copyright infringement, which may be either a civil wrong or a crime depending on jurisdiction.
Canadian singer The Weeknd has been sued by three British songwriters over allegations he copied their work to produce his hit ‘A Lonely Night.’ Songwriters William Smith, Brian Clover and Scott McCulloch sued the Weeknd, Universal Music Group Inc and others in a Los Angeles federal court.
The song in question appears on The Weeknd’s Grammy-award winning album ‘Starboy.’ The British songwriters heard ‘I Need to Love,’ recognizing it as their song ‘A Lonely Night,’ the lawsuit said. The UK songwriters are seeking unspecified damages.
They edited the two songs together in a sound clip they said showed the similarities. Joel Zimmerman, who is listed as an agent for The Weeknd, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit said that in 2004 and 2005, the British artists pitched their song to various artists around the world. A division of Universal Music bought the rights to the song in 2008, the court document said.
In 2016, the songwriters were told by the label that the song had not been used and it was relinquishing all rights to their work, according to the lawsuit. Two weeks later, The Weeknd and Universal released ‘Starboy.’ Last year, The Weeknd was sued with an allegation that his song ‘Starboy’ from the album of the same name, was a rip-off.