Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are facing a copyright lawsuit for their new single "The Rest of Our Life." Here, the couple attend the 59th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 12, 2017.
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill have landed themselves in a musical lawsuit for alleged copyright infringement.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the two singers are being sued by songwriters Sean Carey and Beau Golden. The writers claim that McGraw and Hill scored a hit with their current single "The Rest of Our Life" by "blatant copying" their 2014 song "When I Found You,” featuring singer Jasmine Rae.
The lawsuit, which asks for an injunction and at least $5 million in damages, was filed in New York federal court on Wednesday.
"['The Rest of Our Life' is] in many instances verbatim, note-for-note copying of original elements of the Song, and is obvious to the ordinary observer,” the lawsuit alleges.
But it’s not just McGraw and Hill who are in trouble with Carey and Golden.
Ed Sheeran faces another copyright lawsuit as a co-writer on McGraw and Hill's new single. (Reuters)
The lawsuit also names "The Rest of Our Life" songwriters Ed Sheeran, Amy Wadge, Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac as well as Sony/ATV and WB Music. And according to Carey and Golden, Sony employees had full knowledge of the infringement, blaming the record company for facilitating the incident.
"It very well may have been an agent of Sony Music Entertainment who provided the other defendants herein with access to the Song," the complaint states.
While working together in December, Jasmine Rae, Golden and Carey listened to "The Rest of Our Life" after Rae noticed a fan's tweet about the song.
Golden and Carey immediately filed the lawsuit. Even though Rae is not a plaintiff in the suit, she tried to get her boyfriend Tim Holland involved. He is a marketing manager for Sony.
"Mr. Holland admitted to knowing about the Infringing Song months in advance of its release because he was tasked with promoting and marketing the Infringing Song and Infringing Sound Recording before its release,” the suit alleges.
The lawsuit later states that when Holland was first asked about the similarities between the two songs, the Sony employee chose to remain silent on the matter to avoid any confrontation with his company.
But when Holland was further pressed, he admitted to knowing that the songs were somewhat similar, the lawsuit stated.
Carey and Golden are represented by Richard Busch, the famed attorney who represented Marvin Gaye's family in the lawsuit over Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines." Busch also worked against Sheeran for copyright infringement over his song "Photograph,” which ended in a settlement resulting in adding the songwriters who sued Sheeran to the song credits and gaining access to shares of the royalties.
"The Rest of Our Life" is featured on McGraw and Hill's first-ever duets album.
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