The Script’s Lawsuit Against James Arthur for Copyright Infringement

The long-anticipated song theft lawsuit over James Arthur’s hit “Say You Won’t Let Go” was filed in California on Monday, and influential Nashville-based music industry attorney Richard Busch is representing the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit was filed by songwriters from the band The Script, whose 2008 song “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” is at the center if the complaint.

The lawsuit was highly expected and there have been internet posts about similarities between the songs for the last two years.

“Say You Won’t Let Go” has been a colossal hit with over 845 million streams on Spotify. In addition to Arthur, co-writers Neil Ormandy and Steve Solomon, along with their respective publishing companies and record label, were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs are Daniel O’Donaghue and Mark Sheeran, who are both members of The Script, and Andrew Frampton and Stephen Kipner, who co-wrote “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved.” O’Donaghue was a coach on the U.K. version of “The Voice” for two seasons. Arthur, who won the reality competition “X-Factor” in 2012, has about 17.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify and has seen multiple songs top the charts.

– Excerpt from an article for The Tennessean by Nate Rau. See the full article here.