Artikal Sound System is suing Dua Lipa, claiming her song Levitating infringes the copyright of their song Live Your Life, which they claim was released three years earlier.
At first blush, it's an open-and-shut case. The two songs have the same beat, a nearly identical chord sequence, the same melody delivered vocally in the same distinctive rythym, and even a similar "all night" lyric.
But… but… it's the Charleston. It's Blame it on the Boogie slowed. it's Outkast's Rosa Parks sped up. It's yet another song released a year earlier in a different key. It's all pop music hackwork so bland that the whole affair makes a mockery of letting anyone landlord over any of it in the first place. It's the same four chords over and over again (but here one of the four chords is slightly different.)
And yet, let the feeding frenzy begin.
It's also been noted that the Live Your Life uploads appeared online only after Levitating was released (in the last few days, in fact). The Soundcloud embed appears to be 5 years old, but Soundcloud lets bands replace files and wipes the comments when they do so—and the most recent comment is only a few days old. This doesn't necessarily mean it's a hoax, and it's perfectly reasonable for the plaintiff to support their case by posting evidence online. But problems with doctored evidence is not an unknown hill upon which IP claims die, and there is explaining to do.
