Jessie J fails to swat ‘Price Tag’ copyright case

Musician Jessie J has failed to dismiss a copyright claim filed against her and a producer that centered on her hit song “Price Tag”.

On Friday, August 7, Judge Ronnie Abrams at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York threw out a motion for a summary judgment that had been filed by Jessie J and the song’s producer Lukasz Gottwald, who goes by the name ‘Dr Luke’.

At the centre of the dispute is a claim asserted by music label New Old Music Group that “Price Tag”, released in 2011, infringed the copyright to a 1975 song called “Zimba Ku” performed by music group Black Heat.

Lenny Lee Goldsmith, the president of New Old Music Group, wrote “Zimba Ku” before Black Heat performed it.

New Old Music Group filed the claim in 2013, alleging that the breakbeat used in “Price Tag” is a copy of the one used in “Zimba Ku”.

‘Breakbeat’ is a term used to define the most percussive parts of a record.

In attempting to dismiss the case, the defendants introduced two musical experts to argue that “each of these elements [of the songs’ breakbeats] are so trite and unremarkable that they are not unlikely to arise in independently created works”.

However, Abrams said the dispute is not about the individual portions of the breakbeat, but rather the sections of the beats used in combination.

Abrams added that the claim concerned the alleged “wholesale copying of the relevant ‘Zimba Ku’ drum part”.

In rejecting the defendants’ motions Abrams described the case as “a difficult question about when the alleged copying of the percussion elements of a popular song is actionable”.

She added: “While a jury, presented with the full evidentiary record, may find that the similarities between ‘Zimba Ku’ and ‘Price Tag’ are too commonplace to warrant an inference of actual copying, or that such similarities are not substantial enough to make any actual copying illegal, the court cannot conclude as much as a matter of law on the present motion.”

The case will now proceed to trial.

Neither Brian Levenson, associate at law firm Schwartz & Ponterio and representing New Old Music Group, nor Christine Lepera, partner at law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp and representing Gottwald and Jessie J, had responded to a request for comment at the time of publication, but we will update the story should either party get in touch.