Justin Bieber is sued over riff in smash hit 'Sorry'

By Jonathan Stempel
May 26 (Reuters) - Canadian pop star Justin Bieber and the
co-writers of his 2015 smash hit "Sorry" are being sued for
allegedly stealing a vocal riff from another artist who said she
used it on her own song a year earlier.
In a complaint made public on Thursday, Casey Dienel, an
indie artist who performs under the name White Hinterland,
accused Bieber of infringing her copyright to the song "Ring the
Bell" by using a "virtually identical" riff without permission.
Among the other defendants are the producer Skrillex and
Vivendi's VIV.PA Universal Music Group. The lawsuit was filed
in the U.S. District Court in Nashville.
Spokespeople for Bieber, Skrillex and Universal had no
immediate comment or did not immediately respond to requests for
comment.
Dienel said "Sorry," which appears on Bieber's album
"Purpose" and has more than 1.42 billion YouTube views, adopted
the "specific and unique characteristics of the female vocal
riff" from her song, sampling it for the first eight seconds of
"Sorry" and several times thereafter.
She said even The New York Times Magazine noted the riff's
distinctiveness, when it praised Bieber's song for its "cooing
arpeggio that feels like a gentle breeze on your brain" in a
March 13 article titled "25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is
Going." Bieber's song ranked No. 1.
Dienel also said she reached out to Bieber to discuss a
resolution, but he "ignored" her claims and refused to talk.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, including from
profits generated by "Sorry." Dienel's "Ring the Bell" appeared
on White Hinterland's album "Baby."
It is common for well-known singers to be accused of
stealing song ideas from other composers.
Kanye West was sued last week for allegedly taking part of
his 2013 song "New Slaves" from a 1969 song by a Hungarian rock
singer. Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page face a June
14 trial over whether they stole opening chords for their 1971
song "Stairway to Heaven" from a 1967 instrumental.
The Bieber case is Dienel v. Warner-Tamerlane Publishing
Corp et al, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee,
No. 16-00978.