Demi Lovato, an acclaimed singer is currently facing allegations of copyright infringement for her song ‘Stars’. Sleigh Bells has sued Demi Lovato in a California Federal Court, alleging that there exists striking similarities between Demi Lovato’s ‘stars’ and their band’s ‘Infinity Guitars’. ‘Infinity Guitars’ is one of the most popular and recognizable tracks of the band ‘Sleigh Bells’. Demi Lovato’s song, ‘Stars’ was released last year as a bonus track in her album ‘Confident’. The song ‘Infinity Guitars’ was released in 2010 and was one of the massive hit songs during that time. However, the band claims that the song ‘Stars’ contains virtually identical content to ‘Infinity Guitars’. The lawsuit has been instituted by Derek E. Miller and Sydney Alexis Krauss. As mentioned in the lawsuit, “the combination of the hand claps and bass drum, structured as 3 quarter beats and a rest… is at least substantially similar in both works.” The accusation first begun with a tweet which was posted by Sleigh Bells last November stating the following:
“Demi Lovato flattered you guys sampled Infinity Guitars & Riot Rhythm for “Stars” but we were not contacted. Gotta clear those.”
However, the producers of Demi Lovato brushed aside these allegations stating that she wasn’t involved in the production and had only written the top line of the song. After the war of words , when the dust did not settle down, Sleigh Bells dragged the matter to the Court and accused Demi Lovato, Universal Music and Island Records of wilful Copyright Infringement. The band has sought for damages amounting to $150, 000 per infringement and a permanent injunction prohibiting the reproduction, distribution, sale, public performance or other use or exploitation of “Infinity Guitars” by defendants.
Demi Lovato is a popular singer and has widely recognized tracks like “Let it go’’ to her credit. This particular song reached the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and won both the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2014 and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media in 2015. The song gained immense international recognition, becoming one of the most globally recorded Disney songs, with numerous covers being recorded in different languages. However, Demi Lovato has chosen to stay mum over the recent copyright controversy.
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Authored By Sudha Sameekshya
