Is ‘Sorry’ a Total Rip-off? Justin Bieber and Skrillex Face Millions In Damages…

Justin Bieber and Skrillex Face Lawsuit Over 'Sorry'
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Justin Bieber faces yet another lawsuit…

Justin Bieber and Skrillex are now facing legal action from a not-so well-known artist by the name of White Hinterland.  Hinterland, also known as Casey Dienel, alleges that the opening of Bieber’s song, ‘Sorry,’ was chopped from her song, ‘Ring The Bell’ and that her vocal loops were simply used without her permission.  As a result, she has now filed a lawsuit claiming damages.

Hinterland claims that the “unique characteristics of the female vocal riff” from ‘Ring the Bell,’ written in 2014 song, are nearly identical to the opening of Bieber’s track.

Because Skrillex produced Bieber’s track, he been roped into the lawsuit along with the others writers of the song,  That collaboration team includes Julia Michael, Justin Tranter and Michael Tucker.  Meanwhile, ‘Sorry’ has racked up over 1 billion views on YouTube, which absolutely eclipses Hinterland’s stream totals.

If Hinterland can get the courts on her side, Bieber, Skrillex and the other writers are looking at paying out a large amount of cash to this singer.  But, it’s not the first time Bieber has been taken to court over copyright infringement of someone else’s song.  Just last month, DMN reported that Bieber was defending against a $10 million copyright infringement charge over his 2010 hit song, ‘Somebody To Love’.

All of which raises the question: are these songs ripping off other artists’ works, or is this one big creative coincidence?

Both songs in this latest case are below, what do you think?

(Images by Joe Bielawa and Amnesia Ibiza, Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic, cc by 2.0)

15 Responses

  1. Anonymous

    Sounds like a ripoff to me. That sample is also the most interesting part of Sorry. They should be sued for making such pablum.

  2. Me

    Definitely not a coincidence, as that is definitely a sample of the original song. This isn’t a case of similar chord progressions, but rather a failure to to obtain a sync license.

    • Me2

      Sure sounds like the sample was directly lifted, some effects put on it. Wonder if there’s a forensic way to prove that though.

      • Faza (TCM)

        Probably not. However, it should be child’s play to replicate the “Sorry” riff through sampling “Ring the Bell”.

        A convincing rebuttal would be for the defendants to demonstrate where they got the sample from. Given that it is a female vocal, it would be a bitch to re-record such a sample in a way that – having been subjected to the exact same processing as the one in the mix – will give the exact same result.

        Things aren’t looking too bright for Bieber and co.

  3. Outre Lights

    White Hinterland will be paid with giant piles of “Exposure”.

  4. Remi Swierczek

    Hunger Games with just few live grade stars at the feeder and degenerated labels interlocked with own oppressors working very hard to SHRINK $200B of music obvious to an imbecile to $20B subs and ads possibly in 2025.

  5. Anonymous

    total coincidence. It happens.

    It happened a few years ago between Joe Satriani and Coldplay.

  6. Arlee Bird

    White Hinterland should thank Bieber and his crew for having made a better song and for drawing attention to the inferior “Ring the Bell”. Reusing musical motifs goes way back to classical music and in more recent times jazz and rock.

  7. Dr. Dark

    It’s a rip off anyone who has produced music, can hear that, even the abience o the stolen vocal sample is the same. Skrillex should have his ass kicked as well sued
    shame on you man you’ll do anything for money!

    • DOOM SQUAD

      fuck u asshole u motherfucking dick u shut the fuck up u little over sized cunt face skrillex is awesome so fuck u and fuck every body who thinks skrillex should get hi ass kicked and go to jail.

      Ima BOSS bitches
      DOOM SQUAD

  8. jDre

    Good for her.. I would figure that once you are being paid Skrillex Amounts of Cash for tunes.. that you would at least make an effort to CLEAR THE DAMN SAMPLES. It’s not like they don’t have an entire major label publishing company behind them or anything. Sad, sad, sad.. Stop supporting these douchebags.