A copyright infringement lawsuit was filed in US federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday against multiple music industry entities, claiming that Olivia Dean’s song “I’ve Seen It” unlawfully reproduced substantial portions of Bill Withers’ 1981 collaboration with Grover Washington Jr., “Just the Two of Us.” The case was brought by Mattie Music Group, which administers Withers’ catalogue.
According to the complaint, representatives of Mattie Music Group identified what they characterized as obvious and significant similarities between the two compositions in early August. The group retained musicologist Alexander Stewart to conduct a comparative analysis of both works. Stewart’s findings indicated that the tracks share substantial similarities in protectable musical expression, with the number and arrangement of shared musical features suggesting the similarities could not be attributed to coincidence or independent creation.
The lawsuit named Sony Music Publishing, Capitol Records, and Kobalt Music Publishing America as defendants, identifying them as Dean’s publisher, record label, and Wolfgang’s publisher respectively. While Dean and her collaborators Bastian Langbaek and Max Wolfgang were not listed as individual defendants, the complaint alleged all three had reasonable opportunity to encounter Withers’ original composition before creating “I’ve Seen It,” which appears as the final track on Dean’s 2025 album “The Art of Loving.”
Mattie Music Group stated it provided written notice to all defendants on August 17, identifying the alleged infringement, but claimed the defendants continued distributing and commercially exploiting the track. The group seeks monetary damages and a permanent injunction halting further distribution of the song. Representatives for Dean, Capitol Records, and Kobalt declined to comment on the matter when contacted for response.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI