One of the greatest entertainers of all-time has been sued for stealing song lyrics and now that singer, Elton John, has requested that the lawsuit be dismissed. John has been accused of stealing lyrics by songwriter Guy Hobbs, who filed the lawsuit in April. Hobbs claimed that John stole his lyrics and used them for his 1985 hit ‘Nikita’ without the consent of Hobbs.
John has decided to fight fire with fire, filing legal documents in response to the lawsuit that say, “The suggestion that the Grammy-Award winning composer/lyricist team of Elton John and Bernie Taupin … would need to copy these commonplace elements from [Hobbs’] lyrics is not only baseless and absurd, but it also misses the essential legal point.”
That legal point is that Hobbs is not permitted to copyright an idea, which was just a theme that featured a man from the West falling in love with a Russian woman. The legal documents also say that John copied the phrase ‘I need you,’ which is in the chorus, and the words ‘just’ and ‘never.’ John is claiming that the lawsuit by Hobbs is so vague that he does not have the right to sue over copyright infringement. A judge has not yet ruled on whether or not the lawsuit will be dismissed.