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Copyright Suit Over Miley Cyrus' Hit 'Flowers' Tests Copyright Defenses for "Response" Songs
A law team from Willkie Farr & Gallagher filed a copyright infringement complaint over the song "Flowers," a 2023 pop hit that drew a Grammy win for singer Miley Cyrus. The suit, which has been brought on behalf of Tempo Music Investments, a New York-based investment platform launched by Warner Music Group and Providence Equity Partners, raises the issue of whether "response" songs can have legal protection from copyright owners of the song that generated the response composition.
The legal complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, names Cyrus and her co-songwriters Gregory "Aldae" Hein and Michael Pollack as defendants, along with several music publishing companies, distributors and retailers. Tempo Music Investments LLC v. Cyrus, 2:24-cv-07910.
Tempo contends "Flowers" infringes on "When I Was Your Man," a hit in 2013 for performer Bruno Mars. Tempo says it acquired partial ownership of "When I Was Your Man" from one of that song's writers Philip Lawrence in or around 2020. Mars is not a party in the suit.
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