Summary: Artist The Weeknd is being sued over copyright infringement for allegedly sampling music for his song “The Hills.”
In music news: Pitchfork reports that artist the Weeknd, Abel Tesfaye, is being sued over copyright infringement. Weeknd’s song “The Hills,” from his album Beauty Behind the Madness, allegedly illegally sampled the score from the 2013 sci-fi film “The Machine.”
Allegedly, producer Emmanuel “Million Dollar Mano” Nickerson sent a direct message on Twitter to composer Tom Raybould, who scored “The Machine.” The plaintiff alleges that the message said, “I sampled your music might make it 2 the weeknd next album. Huge fan of what u did 4 the machine movie!”
The message was supposed to have been sent on March 9, 2015 – just a few days before “The Hills” was released, on May 27.
Raybould seeks damages and an injunction against Tesfaye and his producers, including Nickerson, producer Carlo “Illangelo” Montagnese, co-writer Ahmad “Belly” Balshe, Universal Music Group, and Republic Records.