Universal threatens to sue creators of toys for violation of copyright



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Universal Music Group threatens to sue Netta Barlizai's Eurovision Songwriters
Song "Toy" for alleged plagiarism, the entertainment news show from Guy Pines reported on Tuesday.

The music company sent a pre-suit notice letter to popular songwriters – Doron Medalie and Stav Beger, claiming a copyright infringement. The song apparently has parts that are similar to the hit "Seven Nation Army" by White Stripes.

Yedioth Ahronoth learned that the possible solution to the emerging crisis could be to badign Toy's rights to Universal, which would make the company the publisher and distributor of the song.

  Netta interprets Toy in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon (Photo: Reuters)

Netta interprets Toy in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon (Photo: Reuters)

This decision would force the authors to share the royalties, but a company as large and influential as Universal would invest more in the promotion of Toy, which would increase the revenues of all parties involved.

A scenario in which the song might be stripped of its winning title of Eurovision is unlikely, since there is no real legal claim.

Nevertheless, if any of the countries were to request retroactive disqualification of the song because of its alleged plagiarism, then this would become a problem. Until now, the Public Broadcasting Company of Israel (IPBC) has not received any updates on the subject, and it is continuing its preparations to organize the contest next year. .

According to sources in the music industry, the motivation behind Universal's claim is financial because they want to become the distributor of the song.

"It's been enough time since the release of the song that they know if it has been plagiarized," said a seasoned music producer.

"It's a cynical and aggressive decision on the part of a company that knows that it would get the distribution rights." They were convinced that the song was copied, he said. There would have been shouts of indignation a long time ago.After all, Toy has been a dazzling success even before Eurovision. "

Stav Beger, the coauthor of the song, tackled the author claims in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth.

"I am not a person who works with references No other song was in my head In general, we live in a world where there is a thin line between plagiarism and similarity, and all the possible melodies have already been invented, "concluded Berger.

Doron Medalie, who flew Tuesday to meet with representatives of Universal in Los Angeles, said he was surprised to receive the pre-suit letter of notice .

  Netta Barzilai (Photo: Reuters)

Netta Barzilai (Photo: Reuters)

"We were surprised to have a letter of this kind, but we will deal with it.I believe that in the next two weeks this issue will be resolved to the satisfaction of both parties," added Medalie. .

Lawyer Eli Nahum, copyright specialist, explains how he sees the situation being resolved.

"Let's dissect the case" Toy ", the claim concerns the harmonic progression in the chorus.In my opinion, this is not plagiarism, if that was the case, then half songs would have been considered There are millions of songs with similar harmonic progressions I do not believe that this case will reach the court, a compromise between the two parties will be reached, "said Nahum.

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