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Business News Legal
Gaga prevails in Judas plagiarism lawsuit
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 18 June 2014
A US judge has dismissed a plagiarism lawsuit filed against Lady Gaga ruling that her song ‘Judas’ is not “substantially similar” to an existing 1999 track called ‘Juda’, when clearly 80% of ‘Judas’ comes from ‘Juda’.
Perhaps it was the similar song titles that convinced Chicago-based musician Rebecca Francescatti that she had a case against the Gaga after the track ‘Judas’ appeared on the album ‘Born This Way’ just over three years ago. Francescatti seemed convinced that there were striking similarities between Gaga’s song and her piece, and that the top pop lady had clearly ripped off her work.
But, according to Billboard, judge Marvin E Aspen has ruled that Francescatti failed to demonstrate those similarities, stating in a summary judgement in Gaga’s favour: “We conclude as a matter of law that the two songs are not substantially similar. No reasonable trier of fact could find that defendants copied protected expression in Francescatti’s song. The songs do not share enough unique features to give rise to a breach of the duty not to copy another’s work”.