Before I get into this…can someone please explain to me why people wait so long to sue over a song that’s so old? I mean, if u really wanted your $$$ for a song you wrote, why didn’t you file charges earlier?

Anyhoo, Usher is being sued by songwriter Ernest Lee Straughter because he claims Usher stole his chart topper “Burn” from him. Straugther says he created a song entitled “The Reasons Why,” which showed up on an album by the R&B group Reel Tight under the name “No More Pain” in late 1998 and believes Usher used that material to create “Burn.”

Listen: Usher “Burn”

Listen: Reel Tight “No More Pain”

Last month, a California federal judge found there to be sufficient possibility that Usher and co-defendants who produced the song had access to Slaughter’s work, “Reasons,” created in 1998. The judge accepted a musicologist’s report that noted substantial similarity between the songs and denied a motion to dismiss the case on summary judgment. That means a jury might have the rare opportunity to listen to two songs and determine if the Usher song was stolen.

 But before that happens, Usher’s camp is pleading with the judge to re-examine whether there was any chance he was familiar with Straughter’s work.

Attorneys for the defendants, including Usher, producer Jermaine Dupri, EMI April Music, Sony Music, Arista Records, and others filed a motion on Friday that asks U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder to reconsider her August order denying summary judgment. [source]

This will be interesting. Do you think Usher’s “Burn” sounds like Reel Tight’s “No More Pain?”

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