A US federal judge has recommended that a $10-million lawsuit accusing Justin Bieber and Usher of illegally copying parts of their song “Somebody to Love” from two Virginia songwriters should be dismissed.
In a report on Monday, Magistrate Judge Douglas Miller said Devin Copeland and his cousin Mareio Overton failed to show that Bieber and Usher had access to their 2008 song, also titled “Somebody to Love,” before creating their work in early 2010.
The lawsuit was originally dismissed in March 2014, but a federal appeals court, in a rare reversal in such cases, revived the case in June 2015, saying a reasonable jury could find the songs’ choruses “intrinsically similar.” (Reuters)