Two Italian songwriters involved in a long, long running plagiarism lawsuit with Prince have spoken about their case as they await for a so called 'third degree' ruling from the Italian courts.
Why they've spoken now I'm not sure, given that the last court hearing on this matter was in late 2007 and the next hearing might not happen for several years. But whatever, let's review shall we?
Italian songwriters Bruno Bergonzi and Michele Vicino claimed Prince's 1994 hit 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World' plagiarises their early eighties hit 'Takin Me to Paradise'. They took legal action against the purple one and his publishers as soon as they heard the 1994 release, though it didn't get to court until 2003, such is speediness of the Italian legal system.
The Italian duo actually lost that case, but later won on appeal in 2007. As a result of that win Prince's people must stop selling the song in the Italian territory. However, for Bergonzi and Vicino to actually make a claim to any of the royalties relating to the song, in Italy or elsewhere, they must wait for another final court ruling, and that could take a few more years to come.
Talking about the long running dispute, Bergonzi told Billboard: "Our song was first released in 1983, at the height of the Italian dance boom and it appeared on assorted compilations that were distributed internationally. When we first heard Prince's song we immediately took action, but this case has been dragging on for 15 years and it isn't over yet, such is the slowness of the Italian legal system. We only decided to go public with our story now".
Somewhat amusingly, for a time both sides in this dispute were signed to Warner Music's publishing company Warner/Chappell, meaning on the corporate side it was Warner/Chappell v Warner/Chappell. However, so long running has the case been, Prince has since moved all his publishing rights to Universal Music.
The boss of Universal Music Publishing Italy, Claudio Buja, told Billboard: "We are waiting to see the outcome of the third and final sentence. We're wary of making a comment at this stage, but I can say that plagiarism cases are invariably delicate and difficult".