Two Philadelphia songwriters who accused Britney Spears of copying their song 'What You See Is What You Get' for her track 'What U See (Is What U Get)' have lost their court case. A federal judge dismissed the copyright infringement lawsuit against Britney because Michael Cottrill and Lawrence Wnukowski - who claimed they supplied tracks to Britney's people in 1999, one of which included the 'stolen melody' - couldn't provide enough evidence to prove any melody had in fact been stolen.
The four men credited with writing Spears' song testifying that they hadn't heard Cottrill and Wnukowski's track until two months ago, plus the defence reiterated that there just weren't enough similarities between the two songs to prove copyright infringement.
Judge Schiller: "As plaintiffs have not come forward with any affirmative evidence showing access, there is no reasonable possibility that the creators copied plaintiffs' song before November 1999 when the melody of defendants' song was completed."