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21 August 2014Copyright

Shakira hit song broke copyright laws

A top-selling track by pop star Shakira was indirectly copied from a track released nearly 15 years ago, a US judge has ruled.

The Colombian singer’s song “Loca”—which sold more than five million copies—infringed a track by Dominican Republic-based artist Ramon Arias Vazquez, judge Alvin Hellerstein said.

Shakira’s song, a collaboration with rapper Eduard Edwin Bello Pou, better known as El Cata, was widely released as a single around the world and reached the top of the US’s Latin Music Billboard charts.

Cata had released his own version of the track prior to collaborating with Shakira.

But Hellerstein said the song, released in 2010, contained segments that were clearly copied from a track called “Loca con su Tiguere” by Vazquez which was released in the late 1990’s.

Hellerstein said that while Shakira’s song, which was released only in Spanish, may have been based on Cata’s song that itself was based on Vazquez’s track.

"There is no dispute that Shakira's version of the song was based on Bello's [Cata] version," Hellerstein wrote in his August 19 ruling at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

"Since Bello had copied Arias [Vazquez], whoever wrote Shakira's version of the song also indirectly copied Arias," he concluded.

Cata denied copying the track.

Vazquez, Cata and Shakira are not parties in the suit which was first filed in 2012 by Mayimba Music, which holds the rights to Vazquez’s work, against Shakira’s record label Sony.

A separate case on damages will be heard later this year.

Shakira performed at the closing ceremony of this summer’s World Cup football tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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27 May 2015   A US judge who previously ruled that a song by pop star Shakira infringed copyright belonging to a Dominican Republic-based songwriter has reportedly cited fresh evidence that could throw the ruling into doubt.