Months after Miley Cyrus was first sued for copyright infringement over her mega-hit “Flowers” — a songwriter who worked on Bruno Mars‘s “When I Was Your Man” claimed that Cyrus’s song “would not exist” without Mars’s — the pop star has finally responded, with her legal team claiming a “fatal flaw” in the case against their client.
The flaw in question? The absence of Mars and the other songwriters behind “When I Was Your Man” in the lawsuit. The case against Cyrus was lodged by an entity called Tempo Music Investments that bought out the rights of one of Mars’s co-writers. Attorneys for Cyrus are now saying that the total lack of involvement from Mars and two other co-writers requires the complete dismissal of the lawsuit.
“Plaintiff unambiguously [says] that it obtained its claimed rights in the ‘When I Was Your Man’ copyright from only one of that musical composition’s four co-authors,” wrote Cyrus’s attorneys. “That is a fatal and incurable defect in plaintiff’s claim.”
Cyrus’s representative Peter Anderson, of the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, is arguing that Tempo’s acquisition of a “partial interest” from “When I Was Your Man” songwriter Philip Lawrence gave the company only “non-exclusive rights” to the song. Under federal copyright law, her lawyers say such limited rights don’t give Lawrence “standing” to sue.
“Plaintiff brings this copyright infringement action alone — without any of that musical composition’s co-authors or other owners,” Anderson wrote. “Without the consent of the other owners, a grant of rights from just one co-owner does not confer standing.”
Tempo Music lead counsel Alex Weingarten countered that argument in a statement to Billboard, saying the motion from Cyrus’s attorneys was “intellectually dishonest” and that the group clearly had standing to pursue the lawsuit.
“They’re seeking to make bogus technical arguments because they don’t have an actual substantive defence to the case,” said Weingarten, an attorney at the firm Willkie Farr. “We’re not an assignee; we’re the owner of the copyright. The law is clear that we have the right to enforce our interest.”
“Flowers” was Cyrus’s biggest hit in years, and it dominated the Hot 100 for eight weeks. Cyrus fans and internet sleuths have claimed since its release that “Flowers” was a quasi-response to “When I Was Your Man,” which was allegedly a favourite of Cyrus’s ex-husband Liam Hemsworth.
Tempo suit claims that “Flowers” had stolen elements beyond the in-response lyrics, including “melodic and harmonic material,” “pitch ending pattern” and “bass-line structure.”
In their recent response, Cyrus’s team argued that the two songs show “striking differences in melody, chords, other musical elements, and words” and that any similarities are not protected by copyright.
“The songwriter defendants categorically deny copying, and the allegedly copied elements are random, scattered, unprotected ideas and musical building blocks,” Anderson writes.
Listen to the two songs below.
