chartattack.com
"Avril Lavigne has decided to reach a settlement instead of going to court to fight The Rubinoos' claim that her hit "Girlfriend" plagiarized their 1979 song, "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend."

Rubinoos members Tommy Dunbar and James Gangwer believe that "Girlfriend" borrowed too heavily from their track and its chorus, "Hey, hey, you, you, I wanna be your boyfriend." They filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in California's Northern Federal District Court in July."
----SNIP--------


ap.google.com/
"The lawsuit claims the popular rapper, whose real name is Bryan Williams, owes several music publishing companies an unspecified amount of money for using copyrighted songs without permission.

Williams and his brother, Ronald, co-founded Cash Money Records, which has a distribution and marketing deal with Universal Records, according to the label's Web site.

The lawsuit claims that albums by Birdman and other rappers, including Lil Wayne and Big Tymers, contain copyrighted material that Cash Money Records used without licensing agreements and without paying royalties. The lawsuit doesn't name any of the copyrighted songs.

The Williams brothers and their label made a single payment of $400,000, the lawsuit says, but have failed to provide the companies with "appropriate accounting" to show how much more money they owe.

The lawsuit, filed Oct. 29 in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, accuses the Williams brothers of breach of contract and copyright infringement and seeks unspecified damages, plus interest and attorneys' fees."

The Rubinoos seem to be yet more punk-ass bitches like Lars Ulrich. Bryan Williams seems to be well within fair use. Why did no one (that I know of) sue MC Hammer about "Can't Touch This" seeing as it sounds a hell of a lot like "Super Freak"? ... This is utterly retarded.

The Rubinoos should be flattered that one of their songs was *the inspiration for* -- NOT -- "infringed by" a song created by another artist.

Whatever respect Bryan had for the Rubinoos I'm sure is down the toilet now.

Bryan -- just legally do what ICP and other artists have done to Eminem & Dr. Dre -- write some dissing tracks and release them as free downloads on the Internet from your website.

Bryan should also (if he hasn't already) do what other RIAA Artists have been doing - succeed from the RIAA. Break the shackles. Obtain your freedom.

-Dave

Next time you write a song, better check hundreds of thousands that already exist to see if you're a plagiarist or not.

"The Rubinoos seem to be yet more punk-ass bitches like Lars Ulrich."

Gotta disagree on this one. That was wholesale thievery from The Rubinoos. Listen to the original and you can hear it for yourself. It wasn't really Avril who ripped them off, she wouldn't know The Rubinoos from a hole in the wall. It was her producer, Dr. Luke I think is his name.

"Why did no one (that I know of) sue MC Hammer about "Can't Touch This" seeing as it sounds a hell of a lot like "Super Freak"?"

It sounded like Super Freak because it was. I guarantee you that Rick James was compensated.

"Next time you write a song, better check hundreds of thousands that already exist to see if you're a plagiarist or not."

Nope, next time you write a song, don't take someone else's song and hope you won't get caught.

The news is that Avril's team settled out of court.

I'm of the opinion (based on a guess) that Avril herself didn't "lift" this song HERSELF.

I think this "Girlfriend" song was provided to her by her producer who "generously shared" the authorship credits with her. (And he maybe let her write a few lines/lyrics.)

But the underlying song/melody/tune probably WAS an infringement of the Rubinoos's old bubblegum hit. (Which itself SHOULD have been public domain by now.)

From what little info I know

(and, I very well could be just blowing smoke out my rear because I do NOT know the details beyond what has been reported)

I think the Rubinoo's were infringed AND I think Avril was duped.