A digest of recently-added material to LiM in December, including a new claim against Uptown Funk, the outcome of a new infringement case in New Zealand, and a new case report featuring New Order/John Denver.

Our September 2017 blog Get The Funk Outta here looked at the many claims of infringement against Uptown Funk, two of which were settled close to the release of the track, but several more of which have sprung up as the track became successful. December 2017 brought another claim, from seminal Sugar Hill Records female hip hop trio The Sequence.

The press reports don't yet give details of the claim, but a listen to their 1979 track Funk You Up does reveal a chant not dissimilar to that in Oops Upside Your Head, one of the songs to settle with Uptown Funk for a royalty share. It will be interesting to see how this plays out; both Oops Upside Your Head and Funk You Up were released in 1979, so it could boil down to which came first.

October brought a ruling in the New Zealand case between Eight Mile Style (representing Eminem's track Lose Yourself) and the New Zealand National Party, who had used a similar-sounding track Eminem Esque in an election campaign video. The ruling came with a treasure trove of case notes, music examples and scores, which will be examined in detail in future Lost in Music blogs. The case summary, along with scores, audio files and links to the full court papers, can be found here.

The unlikely pairing of New Order and John Denver brought a law suit in 1990, when part of a New Order song was found to have similarities with Denver's Leaving On A Jet Plane. This interesting case was settled out of court, but is examined in detail here, including audio extracts and scores.

In preparation for January are case notes on the recently settled case between White Hinterland and Justin Bieber. We also look at the settled case between Radiohead and The Hollies, now back in the spotlight as Radiohead serve a lawsuit against Lana del Rey, claming her song Get Free infringes Creep.