In March, Sam Smith and Normani made headlines for reports their 2019 megahit ‘Dancing with a Stranger’ sounded real familiar to a group of songwriters – so much so the penmen took legal action against the hitmaking duo for copyright infringement.
Alleging the song was a ripoff of a 2015 tune of the same name, the writers – Jordan Vincent, Christopher Miranda, and Rosco Banlaoi (under the name Sound and Color, LLC) – even suggested Smith and ‘Mani’s Vaughan Arnell-directed music video for their now-4x Platinum tune has ‘extraordinary similarities’ to the clip that accompanies the 2015 composition.
“It is beyond any real doubt that Smith, Normani, and the other defendants copied Plaintiff’s work,” the three previously wrote. “The protected expression in both the Infringing Song and Plaintiff’s preexisting work is nearly identical and is strikingly similar.”
Five months after the accusations were formally brought to light, lawyers for Sam and Normani have fired back against Sound and Color. Hop inside to read their response to the lawsuit.
According to court docs filed last week, lawyers for Smith and Normani said the Vincent, Miranda, and Banlaoi suit was “rambling, repetitive… and there are fundamental problems with the underlying allegation.”
They went on to request the judge dismiss various aspects of Sound and Color’s original suit.
“The allegations are repudiated by the claimed expert report,” Smith & Normani’s lawyers argued before later stating, “For example, that report includes what it describes as a transcription of the relevant music transposed to the same key and which shows eight notes in Dancing with a Stranger and nine notes in Plaintiff’s song. Even as transcribed by Plaintiff’s expert, only the first and sixth notes are the same. Given that an uninterrupted sequence of four notes is not protected by copyright, two non-contiguous notes cannot be protected.”
Later in the court doc, Smith and Normani’s lawyers argue that the musicologist’s report “acknowledges the melodies [of the two songs] are different and instead claims similarity in ‘melodic contour’ and rhythm. However, melodic contour, or the shape of a melody, is too abstract to protect by copyright, and the claimed similar rhythm is largely repeated eight notes, which also is not protected.”
As of time reported, the performers have yet to make public statements regarding the lawsuit. However, lawyers for Sound and Color have hit back on behalf of the 2015 song’s writers.
“The audio and video comparisons in the complaint make it abundantly clear that the Defendants have a serious problem. This is a technical motion that will have little effect on the overall case as it moves forward to discovery and trial.”