At the centre of a lawsuit, filed in California on Tuesday (June 9), musicians and producers Olivier Bassil, Benjamin Lasnier and Lukas Benjamin Leth claim that a melody used in the track is a plagiarised version of a guitar melody used on their own song called, Cartier.
Between them, according to the suit, Bassil, Lasnier and Leth have previously worked with artists such as Desiigner, Tory Lanez, NBA Youngboy, Trippie Redd, Meek Mill and Schoolboy Q.
Highest in the Room‘s co-writers and producers – Ozan Yildirim (Oz), Nik Dejan Frascona (Nik D), Mike Dean, Jamie Lepr (Cash Passion) and Sean Solymar – are also named in the suit, which alleges that some of the defendants pretended “to be interested in a collaboration while instead just taking Plaintiffs’ work for themselves”.
Olivier Bassil, Benjamin Lasnier and Lukas Benjamin Leth are suing for “for actual damages and profits and want the defendants to be held “jointly and severally liable for actual damages, as well as for each other’s profits as practical partners”.
In the complaint, obtained by MBW and which you can read in full here, Bassil, Lasnier and Leth say that were communicating with Scott’s producers over Instagram and via email in the hopes of collaborating and that “there is no doubt that Defendants’ Highest in the Room was modeled after and copied original, prominent, and qualitatively and quantitatively important parts” of Cartier.
The suit claims that Cartier was written and recorded by Bassil “on or about” January 15, 2019 via Skype alongside Lasnier and Leth and that “on or about January 25, 2019”, Lasnier sent Bassil a recording of the work named Cartier, which was later registered with the United States Copyright Office on December 17, 2019.
Highest in the Room was released on October 4, 2019, by Cactus Jack, Grand Hustle, and Sony Music label Epic Records.
The complaint goes on to claim, that prior to the release of Highest in the Room,Cartier “had been e-mailed directly to [Jamie] Lepr”.
It adds that Lasnier and Defendant Lepr also “exchanged numerous Instagram direct messages about Plaintiffs’ works, including [Cartier] and that “three videos featuring the Original Work which were posted to Plaintiff Lasnier’s Instagram account have been viewed, on information and belief, well above a hundred thousand times, including by Defendants”.
“Upon information and belief, Defendants have received, or are owed in pipeline money, in total, more than $20m in profits related to the Infringing Work, Infringing Sound Recording, and the Remix,” adds the complaint.
The lawsuit notes that Highest in the Room, which hit No.1 on the Hot 100 and “has been licensed to and/or featured” in major television advertisements, is a “worldwide phenomenon” and has generated “upon information and belief, well in excess of $20 million in revenue”.
“Upon information and belief, Defendants have received, or are owed in pipeline money, in total, more than $20m in profits related to the Infringing Work, Infringing Sound Recording, and the Remix,” adds the complaint.
“This revenue and profit received by Defendants includes, but is not limited to, artist royalties, producer royalties, revenue from sales and/or licensing of the Infringing Sound Recording, writer and publisher royalties, licensing royalties, synchronization royalties, public performance royalties, touring revenue, and other revenue, among other things, all of which are directly attributable to the Original Work and should be disgorged to Plaintiffs”.
The attorney representing the songwriters is Nashville-based Richard S. Busch, a partner at King & Ballow Entertainment Law, who has worked on a number of high profile copyright infringement cases over the past couple of years.
In 2018, Busch represented the Marvin Gaye Estate in its successful copyright infringement case against the co-creators of Blurred Lines, Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke – which ultimately led to an award of almost $5 million.
Also in 2018, Busch represented Irish band The Script as they sued British pop star James Arthur, again for alleged copyright infringement, this time for Arthur’s worldwide hit, Say You Won’t Let Go.
Last summer, Busch represented Eminem’s publisher, Eight Mile Style, in a lawsuit against Spotify which alleged copyright infringement of hundreds of the rapper’s songs.
In October pop-punk band Yellowcard filed a lawsuit, via Busch, claiming that Juice Wrld’s smash Lucid Dreams had infringed on the copyright of the melody in their song, Holly Wood Died.
“They never expected that this would end up in a lawsuit but felt they had no choice but to take this action under these circumstances.”
Richard S. Busch
In a statement provided to MBW, Busch said: “Everything we basically have to say is set for in the Complaint.
“I will just add that our clients are very successful songwriters/producers who, as set forth in the Complaint, and is common practice, corresponded with the defendant writers with an eye toward licensing their work through a collaboration.
“They never expected that this would end up in a lawsuit but felt they had no choice but to take this action under these circumstances.”Music Business Worldwide
