A Brazilian judge has ordered a worldwide ban on the reproduction of the song “Million Years Ago” by British popstar Adele. He took this action in the context of a plagiarism complaint from a samba composer.
The judicial decision prohibits the Brazilian subsidiaries of Sony Music and Universal Music, the singer’s record labels, “from using, reproducing, editing, distributing or marketing” this title “at a global level” and “in any medium”, under penalty a fine of 50,000 reais (around 7,400 francs).
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Composer Toninho Geraes filed a complaint for plagiarism. He believes that “Million Years Ago” (2015) copied the melody of the title “Mulheres”, a success performed by the sacred monster of samba Martinho da Vila in an album released twenty years earlier, in 1995.
“This is a turning point for Brazilian music, which, due to the richness of its melodies, its harmony and its rhythms, is often copied to compose international hits,” declared the lawyer of the Brazilian composer. According to him, this legal decision should “dissuade” other plagiarism attempts by “parasitic profiteers”.
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Damages
The Brazilian subsidiaries of Sony Music and Universal Music may appeal, but they have not yet communicated their intentions.
In the complaint for plagiarism currently being analyzed by a court in Rio de Janeiro, Toninho Geraes’ defense is demanding, among other things, one million reais in damages.
Another controversy over the song “Million Years Ago” had already erupted in Turkey, when Internet users said they had identified similarities with the tune of the title “Acilara tutunmak”, by the Kurdish singer Ahmet Kaya, who died in 2000.
ats/miro
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