Beyonce is facing a $20 million copyright infringement lawsuit from the estate of a late New Orleans YouTube star who claims the pop star used his voice without permission in her song "Formation."
The estate of Anthony Barre, who went by the name Messy Mya on YouTube, claims in the lawsuit filed in New Orleans federal court Monday that Barre's voice is featured in the introduction to "Formation." The complaint alleges Barre's estate has received no payment or acknowledgment.
Barre was fatally shot in 2010.
Barre's estate is demanding at least $20 million in damages, royalties
In addition to Beyonce, the suit names several songwriters, the video's director and companies owned by Warner Music Group. Representatives for Beyonce and WMG didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is not the first time Beyonce has been at the center of a copyright infringement lawsuit. In 2016, independent filmmaker Matthew Fulks claimed Beyonce's "Lemonade" trailer was a rip off of his short film "PALINOIA." The lawsuit was settled out of court.
It's cool, they can just pay off the family with Tidal money... oh wait!
ReplyDeletehahahahahahahaha
there doesn't seem to be a lot of love for Beyonce here. fine :) but her music actually helped me through recently so she isn't just these barrage of negative entries.
ReplyDeleteBeyonce does this because she can. I'm sure they will settle out of court like all the others. What a tragic life this young man had.
ReplyDeleteI listened to both videos the other day and she did take from that guy. Idk about $20million worth.
ReplyDeleteThink punitive damages, Barbara. It's supposed to prevent them from stealing from other artist ever again.
ReplyDeleteLike that is going to stop them.
I think Beyonce (or her team) does a lot of stealing from others. I read some story on Yahoo recently about Beyonce stealing an idea about underwater pregnancy photography. The photos were very similar.
ReplyDeleteI am no fan of Beyonce, but this lawsuit is without merit. The guy said a few words and posted them on Youtube, in the public domain. 20 million? not even 20 bucks. I hope she doesn't settle and goes to court
ReplyDeleteWhich got bailed out by sprint just a few weeks ago for $$$'s. Jay-z is a lucky guy.
ReplyDeleteThat'd be wonderful... if she'd ever written a song of her own in her entire career.
ReplyDeleteWrite the music - nope.
Play an instrument - nope.
...
Jiggle her fat arse and look mannish - let me check up on it/
none of that bothers me
ReplyDeleteYou clearly don't understand how 'business' works... bail-out shmail-out. They bought 33% of a chocolate teapot.
ReplyDeleteB fan,nothing bothers you about bey huh?Guess you drank the cool aid - lemonade. She is a notoriously bad tipper,that was enough for me. You should dig online she has stolen so many things.
ReplyDeleteStealing an idea about underwater pregnancy photography? From who, those millions of women who have already taken similar photos? Or were we supposed to somehow believe that Beyonce was the first to take such photos, or come up with the idea to do underwater photos. They're everywhere so what idiot would think Beyonce is the only one to have done it?
ReplyDeleteShe/her team exploit other artist's work, when at this point, she has the money to pay sampling fees or work something out.
ReplyDeleteIt diminishes her integrity.