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Rap R&B sensation the Weeknd is apparently being sued for trademark infringement over his alter ego 'Starboy' by a comic book writer who claims to have created the character back in 2014.

TMZ and The Blast are reporting that writer Eymun Talasazan came up with the concept for a series of comic books focusing on superhero rap and R&B artists, and that he was in touch with representatives of the Weeknd regarding a possible collaboration.

This alleged collaboration never actually took place, after nothing came of the 2017 talks, but the Starboy character was then used for the Weeknd's infamous album last year.

The singer, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, has yet to comment on the issue.

The Marvel graphic novel The Weeknd Presents: Starboy is "near identical" to Eymun Talasazan's idea which he supposedly pitched to the Weeknd's representatives, according to reports.

Talasazan claims to have been creating a whole world surrounding the Starboy comic persona in 2015, dedicated to R&B superheroes.

TMZ recently wrote that Daft Punk and the Weeknd have already faced a €5 million lawsuit over reports of plagiarism on the track 'Starboy' by a songwriter named Yasminah.

She claims her song 'Hooyo', released back in 2009, shares some of the same elements as Daft Punk's offering.

It seems the song, which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, is causing plenty of scandal as well as success.

28-year-old Tesfaye, who is currently dating supermodel Bella Hadid, has just moved in with his Victoria's Secret sweetheart.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by STARBOY (@including.abel) on

The duo seem loved up, despite splitting up back in 2015, and we can't see this controversy getting in the way of their romance.

What do you think, is Starboy an original the Weeknd character? The drama continues…

Feature image: Twitter/@theweeknd 

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Lana Del Rey has found herself in middle of a messy lawsuit after Radiohead claimed the singer copied parts of their biggest selling hit, Creep.

Thom Yorke and his bandmates believe Lana's track Get Free, which features on her album Lust for Life, was heavily influenced by the 1993 single.

It's been reported that both parties are trying to settle the dispute outside of court.

“Both teams are trying to thrash it out behind the scenes to prevent it from going to court," a source told The Sun Online

“It’s understood that Radiohead’s team are hoping for the band to either receive compensation or be credited on the list of songwriters to receive royalties.”

However, with an agreement still not reached, it now looks likely that the artists will let the justice system run its course.

Addressing the dispute in a tweet posted over the weekend, Lana claimed that Radiohead's legal team would only accept a deal for 100 per cent of the song's royalties.

This isn't the first time the band have found themselves at the centre of a lawsuit over the song.

Radiohead were actually sued by The Hollies over Creep's resemblance to their song, The Air That I Breathe.

The Hollies own the legal battle and Radiohead were ordered to hand over a percentage of royalties and credit the writers.

Oh, the irony!

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It looks like Demi Lovato is in hot water again.

The singer has been hit with a lawsuit for copyright infringement.

Indie band Sleigh Bells claim that Demi's song Stars sounds nearly identical to their 2010 song Infinity Guitars.

 

A photo posted by Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) on

According to E! News, who obtained court documents, Sleigh Bells claims that the songs are "virtually identical content" that "transcend the realm of coincidence."

The "comparison of the two songs reveals that, at the very least, the combination of the hand claps and bass drum, structured as 3 quarter beats and a rest, with the bass drum providing a counter-rhythm to the hand claps, is at least substantially similar in both works.

"This infringing material repeats throughout the Defendants' song."

 

A photo posted by Sleigh Bells (@sleighbells) on

Shortly after Demi's song was released late last year, Sleigh Bells took to Twitter to call Demi out, saying: "Flattered you guys sampled Infinity Guitars and Riot Rhythm for Stars but we were not contacted. Gotta clear those."

We're sure Demi wants this over and done with as soon as possible!

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Just this morning it was reported that Ed Sheeran is being sued $20 million for copying a Matt Cardle song, and now it seems Beyoncé has found herself in a similarly tricky legal situation.

According to RTÉ, a Kentucky filmmaker has filed a lawsuit against the Hold Up singer alleging that parts of her Lemonade trailer were copied from a short film called Palinoia which he created in 2014.

Matthew Fulks claims he sent his video to Queen B’s team last summer – five months before they began filming Lemonade.

According to the lawsuit: “Both the PALINOIA Work and the LEMONADE Trailer are comprised of short visual and audio segments arranged in montage fashion, with certain segments recurring throughout the works.”

Fulks – who is currently working as a creative director at a news station – says the similarities between his work and Beyoncé’s video include “images of the central character in a state of distress,” “hand-painted graffiti words in similar styles,” “red persons with eyes obscured,” “garages with repeating ceiling light fixtures and columns with the lower halves of the columns painted yellow,” “overgrown grass,” and “stairwells”.

He says this visual crossover makes up almost two thirds of Beyoncé’s minute-long trailer and that the audio used in both videos is also similar.

Fulks is now seeking damages and a percentage of the profits from Lemonade which has so far been viewed over 10 million time.

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The makers of the biopic about Linda Lovelace (starring Amanda Seyfried) were in a bit of bother recently, after allegations of copyright infringement were made by the makers of the 70s porn film Deep Throat.

Linda Lovelace starred in Deep Throat, so obviously the 2013 biopic, which told the story of the star, would have some similar scenes. However, Arrow Productions, who own the rights to Deep Throat, said they went too far by copying exact camera angles, lighting, costumes and settings.

US District Judge Thomas Griesa didn’t agree though. After close examination of three scenes, including the famous Deep Throat scene where Lovelace performs oral sex on her doctor (every day is different when you’re a judge!), he decided that the biopic scene didn’t “copy any more than necessary to achieve its creative purposes.”

He said the biopic “removed the sexually explicit part of Dr. Young’s physical examination as well as the famous pornographic scene”, and they also focused more on Linda’s lack of sexual experience.

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Katy Perry has been sued for copyright infringement by a group of Christian hip-hop musicians from Missouri.

The group are saying that not only is Katy’s song Dark Horse a rip off of their song Joyful Noise, but she also exploited it and profited from it. The lawsuit reads: “And by any measure, the devoutly religious message of ‘Joyful Noise’ has been irreparably tarnished by its association with the witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery evoked by the same music in ‘Dark Horse’.

“Indeed, the music video of ‘Dark Horse’ generated widespread accusations of blasphemy and an online petition signed by more than 60,000 demanding removal of an offensive religious image from the video” – an Allah pendant was removed from the video in February.

Joyful Noise was released in 2008, while Dark Horse didn’t come out until last year, and while there IS a similar beat in both songs, we can’t be sure. Do you think Katy is a copy cat?

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