Judiciary Report - Avril Taking A Press Beating For Stealing

| |

Avril Taking A Press Beating For Stealing

July 20. 2007

The Avril-Lavigne-Steals press storm really gained more strength last week. Contained in this article is a sampling of some of the ongoing news articles about Avril Lavigne ripping off two fellow Canadian singers, Chantal and Peaches, and a 70’s American rock band the Rubinoos.

First, Chantal, who co-wrote Lavigne’s first album, then accused her of not really writing much on her own projects, poaching her song “Contagious,” then retracted her statements of theft because Team Avril:

a.) Threatened to sue

b.) Threatened to stop the royalty checks

c.) Threatened to kill her career

d.) All of the above

My guess is D.

Avril needs to make an apology to her fans and the artists she stole music from without credit. The denials are only going to make people want to prove it more.

Case in point. After Avril took to her site and slammed the band that sued her for stealing their music, the Rubinoos, denying she’d even heard of them, the bloggers went after her and unearthed the Peaches infringement.

Yes Avril, sometimes silence is golden…especially when you are in the wrong.

Millions of people are listening to the Peaches and Rubinoos infringements online. YouTube racked up over 2,000,000 views on it. Yes, it’s that bad…considering their most popular videos worldwide have around 1,500,000 views.

Avril should have stuck with what she was doing before, instead of going this route, under some unwise person’s influence, because it is near impossible for an artist to recover from the beating her credibility is taking.

When I saw the news headlines about it gaining momentum, I thought to myself, she’s in trouble. The blatant Rubinoos’ infringement and additional public revelations about other infringements show an emerging pattern of theft.

It’s so bad that the only way she could win in court is if she bribed the judge. According to online cases, articles and evidence exhibits, it happens all the time in the court system, hence corrupt verdicts.

It’s not like Hollywood hasn’t been caught doing this before. There are books and articles about it…with more to come.

It is rather unfortunate, as from a musical standpoint, she has a nice voice and is pretty, which made her sellable for the label, but she’s clearly got herself mixed up in some serious mess. Her credibility is shot with fans and critics alike, regardless of the outcome of the legal case:

“With such a unique blend of sounds going on, we wouldn’t be surprised if Avril Lavigne steals some of their rhythms for her next record and then acts like she’s never heard of them before.”

http://www.hecklerspray.com/myspace-trawl-konono-no-1

“After listening to clips of both songs (which are easily found on the Internet), it’s pretty safe to say that Avril is in pretty deep on this one.

Avril seems to think she’s in the clear, saying “I had never heard this song in my life and their claim is based on five words! All songs share similar lyrics and emotions. As humans we speak one language.”

Sharing is caring, Avril, but sometimes sharing without permission is called “ripping people off and making a lot of money from it.”

http://www.thecornernews.com/servlet/Satellite?

Avril Lavigne In Fresh Plagiarism Claims - She's accused off copying Peaches...Avril Lavigne is at the centre of a second maelstrom after being accused of plagiarism yet again.

Several videos posted up on YouTube claim that the Canadian singer directly copied Peaches’ ‘I’m The Kind *****’ with her track ‘I Don’t Have To Try.’

Gigwise has studied it long and hard, and despite the odd change in lyric, it seems pretty much identical. Check it out yourself here

Story continues below...

The fresh allegations come shortly after Lavigne was accused of ripping off The Rubinoos 1978 track ‘I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend’ on ‘Girlfriend.’

http://www.gigwise.com/news.asp?contentid=34612

As with most Information Age disputes, the controversy has spilled over onto You Tube.com, where various video clips highlighting similarities between the two songs - specifically, their sing-song-y, call-and-response choruses of "Hey, hey/You, you" - have been streamed more than 1.4 million times since last week.

"I never heard of the Rubinoos before the lawsuit," said Gottwald, an in-demand producer who has crafted hits for Kelly Clarkson, Pink and Daughtry, among others. "I never heard of the song and neither has Avril. I would take a polygraph on that in front of them.

"Girlfriend" has sold 2.6 million copies worldwide and topped singles charts in the U.S., Italy, New Zealand, Austria, Ireland and Sweden. Lavigne was unreachable for comment, her manager said, but defended herself on her MySpace page.

Lavigne's mensis horribilis began with last month's issue of Performing Songwriter magazine (which went largely overlooked by the media until making headlines in Canada last week, then rippling out around the world), in which Chantal Kreviazuk, who co-wrote much of Lavigne's 2004 triple platinum-selling album "Under My Skin," ridiculed the notion that Lavigne writes her own material.

The allegation cuts to the core of Lavigne's self-made persona.

"I mean, Avril, songwriter?" Kreviazuk said in the article. "Avril doesn't really sit and write songs by herself or anything."

"I've never been sued before for plagiarism," he said. "I'm disappointed in humanity but open to discussions. I would love to talk to [Dunbar and Gangwer], to sit down with them and steer them in a direction to be positive."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/lifestyle/bal-to.avril12jul12