British pop sensation and former One Direction member, Zayn Malik, is currently entangled in a legal battle following a lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California. The complaint accuses Zayn of blatant copyright infringement in his hit song, ‘Better,’ claiming it borrowed numerous significant compositional elements from ‘Somebody Tonight,’ a track released in 2018 by California-based musician Patrick Simmons, known as Havyn.
The lawsuit, initiated on behalf of Simmons’ company, Formal Entertainment LLC, also targets Sony Music Entertainment, the owner of RCA Records, the label that released ‘Better’ in 2020. Five individuals credited as songwriters on ‘Better’ are named in the lawsuit as well: David Debrandon Brown, Dustin Bowie, Michael McGregor, Cole Citrenbaum, and Philip von Boch Scully, who also served as the song’s producer.
The legal dispute traces back to Simmons’ interaction with a company representative, Jonah Rindner, who agreed to promote Simmons’ ‘Somebody Tonight’ without charge, considering it his best work. To Simmons’ surprise, Rindner later revealed that the same company promoted Zayn’s ‘Better,’ raising suspicions of plagiarism. A cease and desist letter sent to Sony in December 2020 was met with a denial of any infringement claims.
The lawsuit alleges that ‘Better’ bears striking similarities to ‘Somebody Tonight,’ so much so that an ordinary listener could easily conclude that both songs share essential compositional elements. It asserts that ‘Better’ owes its existence to the conscious copying of ‘Somebody Tonight.’ The complaint seeks damages and the profits derived from ‘Better’ for the defendants.
This legal battle draws parallels to previous copyright disputes involving members of One Direction, highlighting the ongoing challenges in the music industry surrounding intellectual property rights.
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