Musician appeals in Bieber copyright squabble
Musician Devin Copeland has appealed against the dismissal of a long-running copyright squabble concerning Justin Bieber and Usher.
Centring on Bieber and Usher’s hit song “Somebody to Love”, Copeland’s suit was originally filed in 2013 at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Copeland had claimed that his song of the same name was infringed and he requested $10 million in damages.
The court refused to hear the case and granted Bieber and Usher’s subsequent motion for summary judgment.
In June 2015, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit revived the claim. It ruled that versions of Bieber’s and Usher’s song “Somebody to Love” could be intrinsically similar to Copeland’s.
WIPR then reported that, in November last year, Judge Douglas Miller of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division said that the copyright dispute should be dismissed.
This view was followed—in January, the case was dismissed by Judge Arenda Wright Allen, at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, who ordered that all claims be dismissed with prejudice.
But Copeland has not backed down—on Monday, February 6, he appealed against the decision to the Fourth Circuit.
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