Tag Archives: Copyright

Local artist White Hinterland sues Justin Bieber/Skrillex for Copyright Infringement

If you listen to mainstream radio, chances are you have heard Justin Bieber’s latest hit song, “Sorry”. The industry was shocked to learn last night that White Hinterland (a local artist from Scituate, MA) is suing Justin, Skrillex and his producers for infringement.

Casey Dienel (White Hinterland) claims a vocal riff from one of her most popular songs, “Ring the Bell”) was sampled without permission and used in the hit song.  On Thursday evening, Dienel went public: “Like most artists that sample music, Bieber could have licensed my song for use in ‘Sorry’. But he chose not to contact me. After the release of ‘Sorry’ my lawyers sent Bieber a letter regarding the infringement, but Bieber’s team again chose to ignore me. I offered Bieber’s team an opportunity to have a private dialogue about the infringement, but they refused to even acknowledge my claim, despite the obviousness of the sample”.

Overnight the story went viral and fans across the world of both White Hinterland and Bieber picked which side they were on. However on Friday afternoon, Skrillex took to Twitter to claim his innocence. He posted a video featuring a raw track from singer named Julia Michaels and provided a short tutorial as to how he created the vocal riff in question.

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