The case this time has been brought forward by Bosko Kante, a music producer, engineer and entrepreneur who filed a complaint on Monday (31 July) with the US District Court for the Central District of California.
The case in a nutshell argues that one of the track’s producers, Stephen Kozmeniuk, approached Kante in 2019, asking for a “talkbox vocal” – a device that allows a vocal to be modulated into an instrument-like recording.
Despite multiple attempts at a licensing agreement, the complaint alleges, only an oral agreement was eventually agreed for the “talkbox” vocal to be used – but not for any future remixes.
That latter part around future remixes is now the crux of the issue, with Kante and his representatives alleging his recording has been used in other reworkings of the track, including the hugely popular version of the track with rapper DaBaby, without them giving permission.
Kante’s complaint alleges that his work also appeared on a remix of the track by DJ Blessed Madonna, which features Madonna and Missy Elliott, and which has been streamed 55 million times on Spotify, and viewed some 39 million times on YouTube.
The complaint alleges: “All three remixes sampled and incorporated a greater amount of plaintiff’s work than that used in the original version, including, but not limited to, additional lyrics and melody that were created by plaintiff, which do not appear in the original version.”
“Plaintiff made numerous attempts to resolve this matter short of litigation, but such efforts were unsuccessful, due to defendants’ unwillingness to cooperate or accept responsibility for this blatant infringement of plaintiff’s copyrights.”
The lawsuit seeks at least $2 million (£1.6 million) plus interest in damages, as well as profits made from the remixes, which it estimates as being at least $20 million (£15.7 million).
‘Levitating’ has now been at the centre of at least three known copyright cases.
A little under two months ago, a judge dismissed a copyright infringement case brought against Dua Lipa in relation to the song by Artikal Sound System – although did offer the Florida reggae band a chance to refile the case.
The judge determined there was little evidence to suggest Dua Lipa had “access” to Artikal Sound System’s track.
Dua Lipa. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris
A further case, which is yet to go to court, was filed in March last year by songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer.
It accused Dua Lipa of lifting the melody for her song from their 1979 track ‘Wiggle and Giggle All Night’ and their 1980 song ‘Don Diablo’ – allegations the pop star has denied, saying she’d “never heard” of the tracks prior to the lawsuit.
In brighter Dua Lipa news, the singer’s disco-inflected ‘Dance The Night’ made its way into the Top 10 on the UK singles chart, along with other tracks from the hugely successful Barbie film soundtrack.
