In October 2019, Lizzo was accused of plagiarism over her hit song, “Truth Hurts.” In response to the accusations, which were made by Justin Raisen, Jeremiah Raisen, and Justin “Yves” Rothman, Lizzo filed a lawsuit in a California federal court for “a judicial declaration” against her three accusers, claiming they “did not co-author ‘Truth Hurts,’ and have no right to co-own that work or to share in its profits.” Nearly a year after that lawsuit was filed, a judge has sided with Lizzo and her claim, as per Pitchfork.
The decision, which was made by U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee, comes after the trio of accusers countersued Lizzo in February claiming that Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” came from a single they worked on together titled “Healthy.” Judge Gee agreed with Lizzo’s claim that “a joint author of one copyrightable work does not automatically gain ownership of a derivative work in which the joint author had no hand in creating.” Judge Gee also pointed out that “Healthy” was a completed “standalone” track and not a demo version of “Truth Hurts.”
Despite granting Lizzo’s motion to dismiss the Raisens and Rothman’s initial counterclaim, Judge Gee is allowing the trio to amend their suit with new and different evidence. The trio has until September 4 to amend their suit or notify Lizzo and her team of their decision to withdrawal the amendment.
The court win comes a week after she inked a deal with Amazon to begin work on an upcoming TV series.
(via Pitchfork)
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music.