A Jamaican artist who claims Miley Cyrus ripped off a song he penned 25 years ago has filed a $380 million lawsuit this week for copyright infringements.
Miley’s 2013 smash hit ‘We Can’t Stop’, one of the biggest singles from her album Bangerz, was also probably one of the biggest earworms of the year. It was her first #1 hit on the UK Singles Charts, and was only pipped from the top spot on the US charts by a little ditty known as ‘Blurred Lines’.
Five years later, Michael May – who performs under the pseudonym Flourgon — has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Miley, claiming that ‘We Can’t Stop’ is a rip of a song that he wrote and released some 25 years ago.
As reported by Reuters, May believes his material and 1988 song ‘We Run Things’ was misappropriated by Miley and her team, which she definitely made a shitload of money from.
If you listen to both songs, it’s not obvious to find the alleged copyright issue – because it’s not a similar melody issue here. May’s claiming that Miley nicked lyrics and appropriated them for her own song, and is claiming that Miley “owes the basis of its chart-topping popularity to and its highly-lucrative success to plaintiff May’s protected, unique, creative and original content.”
In particular, May points out the lyrics in the chorus of Miley’s track hold incredible resemblance to his own lyrics. In ‘We Run Things’ May’s lyrics go “We run things / Things no run we” while in Miley’s 2013 smash hit, the chorus is “We run things / Things don’t run we”.
Miley’s team have not yet responded to the claims, but we’ll keep you updated on this one.
