Miley Cyrus is not staying silent when it comes to her art, in particular, the lawsuit surrounding her song, "Flowers."
The singer was previously sued for copyright infringement over the song by a songwriter who worked with Bruno Mars on Mars' song "When I Was Your Man." Now, Cyrus has responded and claims she found a "fatal flaw" against the lawsuit.
According to Exclaim!, Cyrus says that the lack of involvement from Mars and the two other cowriters is grounds for the lawsuit to be dismissed.
"Plaintiff unambiguously [says] that it obtained its claimed rights in the 'When I Was Your Man' copyright from only one of that musical composition's four co-authors," Cyrus' lawyers say. "That is a fatal and incurable defect in plaintiff's claim."
Cyrus' representative Peter Anderson has gone on to argue that Tempo Music Investment -- the company that bought the rights of one of Mars's co-writers -- gave the company only "non-exclusive rights" to the song. They go on to claim that under federal copyright law, such limited rights don't give someone a right to sue.
"Plaintiff brings this copyright infringement action alone — without any of that musical composition's co-authors or other owners. Without the consent of the other owners, a grant of rights from just one co-owner does not confer standing," Anderson said in the docs.
However, Tempo Music's legal team member, Alex Weingarten, has countered the argument with a statement to Billboard.
"They're seeking to make bogus technical arguments because they don't have an actual substantive defense to the case. We're not an assignee; we're the owner of the copyright. The law is clear that we have the right to enforce our interest," he said.
Tempo's suit claims that "Flowers" had stolen elements beyond the in-response lyrics, including "melodic and harmonic material," "pitch ending pattern," and "bass-line structure."
Cyrus's team has since argued that the two songs show "striking differences in melody, chords, other musical elements, and words" and that any similarities are not protected by copyright.
"The songwriter defendants categorically deny copying, and the allegedly copied elements are random, scattered, unprotected ideas and musical building blocks," Anderson said.
Cyrus scored the biggest hit of her career with "Flowers." The song peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for eight weeks becoming her second chart-topper after "Wrecking Ball" in 2013. The song earned Cyrus her first Grammy awards as she won for Record of the Year and Pop Solo Performance.
Originally published on Music Times.
