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U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes said Artikal
Sound System failed to argue that the writers of "Levitating"
ever had access to the group's 2017 song "Live Your Life."
Sykes gave the group an opportunity to file a new complaint. She
also rejected the band's request to move its case to New York to
be heard with another infringement lawsuit by songwriters Sandy
Linzer and L. Russell Brown over alleged similarities between
"Levitating" and their disco songs "Wiggle and Giggle All Night"
and "Don Diablo."
Artikal Sound System attorney Stewart Levy said on Tuesday that
the decision was disappointing and the band is considering its
next steps. Representatives for Lipa did not immediately respond
to a request for comment.
"Levitating" spent 77 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 U.S. singles
chart, peaking at No. 2 in 2021.
The complaint, filed in 2022, said it was "highly unlikely" that
"Levitating" was made independently "given the degree of
similarity" between the two songs' melodies, harmonies and other
elements.
Sykes on Monday agreed with Lipa that Artikal Sound System's
complaint failed to show that the defendants could have
encountered its song before writing "Levitating."
The group said it played "Live Your Life" at concerts,
distributed it through streaming services and sold several
hundred copies of a CD with the song on it. Sykes said this was
not enough to demonstrate the song was widely disseminated
enough that the "Levitating" songwriters could have heard and
copied it.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Editing by David
Bario and Richard Chang)
(Photo: Singer Dua Lipa, who received the
Albanian citizenship, performs during her final show of the
"Future Nostalgia" tour on Albania's 110th Anniversary of
Independence at Skanderbeg square in Tirana, Albania November
28, 2022 REUTERS/Florion Goga/File Photo)
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