After previously finding that Sony/ATV Latin and Sony/ATV Discos were liable for copyright infringement, a New York judge dismissed the case on August 10.
- August 11, 2015
AceShowbiz -
A judge in New York has ruled that Shakira's "Loca" is not a rip-off of a Dominican songwriter's work. According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein found that a cassette tape on which the songwriter named Ramon Arias Vasquez had allegedly recorded the original song was fake. "[T]here was a basic issue of fraud in the trial," said Hellerstein when he dismissed the lawsuit on Monday, August 10.
The copyright infringement lawsuit was filed against Sony in 2012 by Mayimba Music which owns the rights to Vasquez's work. They claimed that Shak's "Loca" copied Vasquez's "Loca con su Tiguere" that he wrote years before the former became a hit.
In Hellerstein's previous ruling, he found that Sony/ATV Latin and Sony/ATV Discos which distributed Shakira's "Loca" were liable for copyright infringement. However, Sony recently brought new evidence offering "competent and substantial proof" that the cassette Vasquez used to record his version of "Loca" was not made in 1998 as claimed. As a result, he said, the copyright is invalid.
Responding to the new ruling, Sony's lawyer Barry Slotnick said they're "very pleased and gratified on behalf of Sony and the real writers, El Cata and Shakira." A rep for Mayimba Records, meanwhile, declined to comment.
