Miami, FL Law Blog for Entertainment Law, Business Law, and Public Interest

Does ‘Good Time’ infringe on other singer’s copyright?

Everyone in Miami has heard the mega-selling duet “Good Time” by Carly Rae Jepsen and Owl City. Now, one person has heard the song and thinks she recognizes it– because it was hers.

Jepsen, Owl City (a.k.a. Adam Young) and their publishing companies have been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit over “Good Time.” The plaintiff is an Alabama singer-songwriter who thinks “Good Time” bears too much similarity to her 2010 single “Ah, It’s a Love Song.”

“Ah, It’s a Love Song” was licensed to MTV, but it never reached the same heights as “Good Time,” which was used to promote the London Olympics and has played on “Parks and Recreation” and in the trailer for the upcoming children’s film “Hotel Transylvania.”

The lawsuit against Jepsen and Young points out that there are similarities between the two songs with respect to timbre, rhythmic construction, melodic contour and pitch sequence. The songs are not similar with regard to lyrics, key or theme.

Jepsen and Young have not commented on the suit.

Copyright infringement suits like this are one way artists who believe their work has been unlawfully copied seek recovery for the work they think has been infringed upon. This is one of the areas of law that we practice.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, “Carly Rae Jepsen, Owl City’s Adam Young Sued for Allegedly Stealing ‘Good Time,'” Eriq Gardner, Oct. 30, 2012