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Sony faces copyright claim over Pitbull and Ke$ha hit
By Aly Barchi | Published on Thursday 26 June 2014
Sony Music is in hot ‘copyright dispute’ water over bad taste pop playboy Pitbull and Ke$ha’s chart hit ‘Timber’.
Songwriting trio Lee Oskar, Keri Oskar and Greg Errico claim the track features harmonica bars that are “identical” to those in ‘San Francisco Bay’, their song circa 1978, and are seeking $3m (approx £1.78m) in damages.
Whilst neither Pitbull nor Ke$ha are listed as defendants, the suit notes “copious use” of the ‘San Franciso Bay’ riff in ‘Timber’, alleging that Paul Harrington, who plays harmonica on Pitbull’s track, was told to copy Oskar’s notes “so that the harmonica lines in ‘Timber’ would have an identical texture and sound”.
It concedes that Pitbull’s label Sony might have obtained a license from another party to emulate the track, but if so Oskar, Oskar and Errico weren’t asked to authorise it, nor have they been paid anything in light of the ‘Timber’ release.