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May 13, 2005

Britney Sued for Copyright Infringement

It appears that my favorite pregnant pop star who married two different guys in the last year may have legal problems.

The lawsuit was filed May 5 by an Indiana man claiming authorship of the song "Sometimes." He claims to have written the song in 1990, but didn't file for a copyright until 2003. Instead, he mailed a copy of the work to himself to get a "poor man's copyright." While this act isn't necessary for copyright protection, I guess it could provide some proof that he was the first author. Other proof he may use, according to EOnline:

He claims he shopped the song to publishers in 1994 and entered it in a Pennsylvania lyrics concert in 1997. A side-by-side comparison shows that Wallace's lyrics are nearly identical to the ones Spears sings in her version of "Sometimes."

Included in Wallace's court filing is an email allegedly from Spears, in which she writes: "I now know for a fact that you wrote 'Sometimes.' But there's nothing I can do about it. That's all I can say about it."

For more information, see the article by Chart Attack.

If you would like to see the complaint itself, it was filed on May 5, 2005 in the Southern District of Indiana (1:05-cv-00660-JDT-WTL). You can obtain the filing through PACER for $0.08 per page. It cost me $1.28 to get the complaint and the exhibits. There wasn't anything interesting that isn't in the articles linked above, though.

Posted by Melody Wirz at 09:43 AM.
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