Miley Cyrus is being sued for $300 million over 'stolen' song lyrics

Singer Miley Cyrus may be one of the biggest names in the music industry but that hasn’t stopped her from being taken to court over a $300 million (around £215 million) lawsuit in relation to the use of her We Can’t Stop song lyrics.

According to Reuters, the popstar, 25, is being sued over allegedly working existing lyrics into her 2013 hit We Can’t Stop from reggae star Flourgon’s (real name Michael May) We Run Things, released in 1988.

The dispute is in relation to seven words: the lyrics ‘We run things/Things don’t run we‘ in her first single after transitioning from Disney starlet to adult songstress. May has now taken legal action over the theft of the words and wants monetary compensation for the accused theft.

As per the report, it’s said that May gained full copyright ownership of all musical arrangements on his track We Run Things t the end of 2017, which makes Miley’s use of it a problem and explains why he’s now only just filed the grievance.

Reuters also state that, according to May’s legal representative, Cyrus ‘owes the basis of its chart-topping popularity to and its highly-lucrative success to plaintiff May’s protected, unique, creative and original content.’

The legal action also requests that the star never perform the song in question again – meaning We Can’t Stop will in fact stop – and to halt all future sales of the record.

Cyrus isn’t the first and won’t be the last musician to be accused of stealing lyrics for their songs. Taylor Swift was famously taken to court by the songwriters of Players Gon’ Play over use of their lyrics in her worldwide hit Shake It Off. The case was eventually dismissed at the beginning of this year.

Other popular bands like Radiohead have been been embroiled in copyright disputes over their song Creep. Firstly, they were accused of ripping off a The Hollies’ song, The Air That I Breathe, whereby Radiohead ended up having to pay out a percentage of the rights to its songwriters Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood. Then they reportedly went after Lana Del Rey for copyright infringement for the same tune – a claim the band have since denied.

miley’s track spent 17 weeks in the US charts, entering at 11 and peaking and 2. It topped the charts here in the UK and enjoyed commercial success across Europe and the rest of the world.

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