Far be it from me to come to the rescue of Justin Bieber, but…

Another week, another insane copyright infringement lawsuit.

Justin Bieber and collaborators Dan + Shay have been accused of ripping off–sorry, “borrowing the ‘core portion'”–of an obscure 1980 song called “The First Time Baby is a Holiday” for Bieber’s Grammy-winning song, “10,000 Hours.”

I quote from the complaint:

“Defendants’ theft is impudently bold, One need only listen to ‘First Time’ and the infringing ‘10,000 Hours’ to discern the unmistakable similarities between the songs.” The complaint is supported by a musicologist who says “ineluctable conclusion that defendants stole plaintiff’s song.”

I continue: “The similarities are so striking that ‘10,000 Hours’ simply cannot have been independently created” and that “several 47-note sections of ‘10,000 Hours’ are virtually identical to parallel sections of ‘First Time’.”

Interesting that although “First Time” was copyrighted in 1980, the complaint says the song was released in 2014.

Here are the two songs for comparison

A claim of out-and-out theft is a serious one. But why would a successful artist like Bieber risk stealing a song? Why do something like that after the fiascos of “Blurred Lines,” “Shape of You” and other such cases? Given that there are only so many ways our 12-note scale can be pieced together in a pleasing way for a simple pop song, isn’t it possible that Bieber and Dan + Shay independently discovered the same combinations? And gee, the plaintiffs waited until the song won a Grammy before launching legal action?

We’ll see where this goes.

(Via Variety)