Justin Timberlake has run into some legal trouble.
Cirque du Soleil has sued the Grammy-winning singer, accusing him of sampling part of one of the performance company’s original songs in his track “Don’t Hold the Wall,” a cut from his 2013 album “The 20/20 Experience,” without permission.
The lawsuit claims that Timberlake borrowed from “Steel Dream,” a song that originally appeared in “Quidam,” Cirque’s ninth stage production, and later on a 1997 album of the same name. The suit, filed Thursday in a New York federal court, is seeking $800,000 in copyright infringement damages.
Timbaland, J-Roc and James Fauntleroy, “Don’t Hold the Wall’s” co-writers, along with Sony Entertainment, Universal Music and WB Music Corp. were also named as defendants in Cirque’s suit.
No stranger to copyright infringement-related accusations, Timberlake was sued by the 1970s rhythm and blues band Sly, Slick and Wicked earlier this year over his song “Suit & Tie,” claiming that it borrowed elements from their song “Sho’ Nuff.” This incident was followed by a similar claim in February, which alleged that his Will.I.Am collaboration “Damn Girl” samples from Perry Kibble’s “A New Day Is Here at Last.”
After committing to a brief break from acting, the singer-turned-actor will voice the character of Branch in DreamWorks’ animated musical comedy “Trolls” this year.
So what happened in the previous infringement cases? Some decent reporting please.
They don’t sound anything alike. Cirque just wants to use Timberlake’s music in their productions at a reduced cost. Such non-sense. Good luck with this.
Why did it take Cirque so long to file the lawsuit? It’s obvious that people just want a piece of the Timberlake Pie. To me it sounds nothing the same. Pathetic.
If Cirque is not loosing money over this, who cares.
Obviously, Cirque du Soleil cares. Plus, if the situation was reversed, I’m pretty sure Timberlake would be screaming “copyright infringement” at any judge who would listen….