Brazilian judge bans Adele song from worldwide release over plagiarism

Brazilian judge orders ban on worldwide reproduction of song Million Years Ago of British pop star Adele, as part of a complaint for plagiarism from a samba composer. The legal decision, to which AFP had access on Monday December 16, 2024, prohibits the Brazilian subsidiaries of Sony Music and Universal Music, the singer’s record labels, from “to use, reproduce, edit, distribute or commercialize” this title “globally” et “under any support”under penalty of a fine of 50,000 reais (approximately 7,800 euros).

Counterfeiting

The composer Toninho Geraes filed a complaint for plagiarism, believing that Million Years Ago (2015) had copied the title melody Womena success performed by the sacred monster of samba Martinho da Vila in an album released twenty years earlier, in 1995. “It 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”lawyer Fredimio Trotta, lawyer for the Brazilian composer, told AFP on Monday. According to him, this judicial decision should “deter” other attempts at plagiarism “parasitic profiteers”.

The Brazilian subsidiaries of Sony Music and Universal Music can appeal. Contacted by AFP, Sony Music said it did not “no press release at the moment” about this. Universal Music did not immediately respond. 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 (around 156,000 euros) in damages.

Another controversy over the song Million Years Ago had already exploded in Türkiye, when Internet users said they had identified similarities with the tune of the title holding on to painby the Kurdish singer Ahmet Kaya, who died in 2000. Brazil is a signatory to the Berne Convention of 1886 on the international protection of the rights of authors to their works.