CLINTON LINDSAY » BREAKING NEWS, Featured » REGGAE ARTIST FLOURGON IS SUING POP SINGER MILEY CYRUS FOR INFRINGEMENT!

REGGAE ARTIST FLOURGON IS SUING POP SINGER MILEY CYRUS FOR INFRINGEMENT!

March 14th, 2018 | Add a Comment

Miley Cyrus won a Teen Choice Award for “We Can’t Stop”. August, 2013. Source: AAP

Reggae songwriter Michael May, who performs as Flourgon, is suing Miley Cyrus for $US300 million after alleging her hit We Can’t Stop infringes copyright.—-

Miley Cyrus is being sued for $US300 million by a Jamaican songwriter who says the pop singer’s 2013 smash We Can’t Stop closely resembles a song he recorded 25 years earlier, and that she is infringing his copyright.

Michael May, who performs as Flourgon, said his 1988 song We Run Things has been “a favourite for lovers of reggae music worldwide” since reaching No.1 in his home country, and that about 50 per cent of We Can’t Stop comes from him.

Michael May a.k.a. Flourgon. June 1989.

He accused Cyrus and her label RCA Records, owned by Sony Corp, of misappropriating his material, including the phrase “We run things. Things no run we”, which she sings as “We run things. Things don’t run we”.

Representatives for Cyrus, 25, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

May said he sought to protect his work last year with the US Copyright Office, and in November won “formal copyright protection” for all musical arrangements in We Run Things.

He said Cyrus’ song “owes the basis of its chart-topping popularity to and its highly-lucrative success to plaintiff May’s protected, unique, creative and original content”.

Cyrus and Robin Thicke perform a medley of "We Can't Stop" and "Blurred Lines" at the 2013 VMA's. Thicke was similarly accused of plagiarizing Marvin Gaye.

Cyrus and Robin Thicke perform a medley of “We Can’t Stop” and “Blurred Lines” at the 2013 VMA’s. Thicke was similarly accused of plagiarizing Marvin Gaye.

Getty Images

The Kingston, Jamaica resident is also seeking a halt to further sales and performances of We Can’t Stop, according to his complaint filed with the US District Court in Manhattan.

While the complaint did not specify damages, May’s lawyers in a press statement described it as a $US300 million case.

We Can’t Stop, from Cyrus’ album Bangerz, peaked at No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 2013.

It was kept from the top by Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines, itself the subject of a high-profile copyright case over its resemblance to a 1977 Marvin Gaye song.