Justin Bieber and Skrillex are being sued over ‘Sorry’

Remember last year when Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams had to cough up $7.4 million because their controversial song Blurred Lines borrowed from Marvin Gaye’s Got to Give It Up? It was a landmark decision and pretty much unprecedented but now we’ve got a new case coming to light involving different artists and a different song.

Justin Bieber is being sued by indie singer Casey Dienel aka White Hinterland for allegedly using her ascending vocal loop at the beginning of his 2015 number one hit Sorry. Produced by Skrillex, the song does bear some similarity to White Hinterland’s 2014 single Ring the Bell but the accusation is definitely a bit of a stretch.

Some have commented on Casey’s music video expressing their opinions, with one user (JohanDeLijser) saying: “Oke people lets take a piano, it has a limmited amount of keys, you can play those keys in an order. It is possible to just come up with the exact same melody, or little riff,” while another (Andrew Andrews) disagreed saying: “I reckon it’s a rip. Why do ppl bother ripping stuff???”

Ring the Bell got more that 800,000+ streams and was well received by Rolling Stone magazine, which Casey pointed out. She’s requesting for Bieber to stop using her vocal and to pay her compensation.

According to EW, the lawsuit reads: “The identical and/or striking similarity of ‘Sorry’ to Plaintiff’s song ‘Ring the Bell’ surpasses the realm of generic coincidence and independent creation.” It goes on to state: “To write, create, produce, and record the song ‘Sorry,’ the Defendants knowingly and unlawfully copied original, protectable elements of the musical composition of ‘Ring the Bell’ and unlawfully sampled Plaintiff’s protectable sound recording of ‘Ring the Bell.’”

A musicology report was also included in the complaint.

We’ll have to see how Bieber and Skrillex’s team respond and how the whole situation plays out. In the meantime, what do you think of Casey’s claims? Is she onto something? Compare for yourself: