Toys in Crimbo times
Irish act had sued James Arthur over his biggest song
AN independent toy shop says it won’t suffer from shortages this Christmas because most of its stock is sourced in Europe.
The owner of 44-year old
Duffy’s Toyworld in Dunleer, Co Louth, says he has no fears about being able to stock shelves and supply customers.
Tony, who sells toys without an on button, said: “I have no fear of running out of the type of toys we sell because ours are not shipped from China or the Far East.
“To us, it’s all about imagination and we only provide the tools.”
JAMES Arthur has settled a £14million (€16.37m) copyright lawsuit with The Script over his biggest hit.
The former X Factor star was landed with a legal claim by the band over his 2016 song Say You Won’t Go, which has racked up a staggering 1.8billion Spotify streams.
The Script said it was too similar to 2008 hit The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, in the 2018 lawsuit.
It is not known the terms of the settlement.
But The Script singer Daniel O’Donoghue and guitarist Mark Sheehan have now been formally listed as songwriters on Arthur’s track.
Lawyer
The band’s lawyer was Richard Busch who represented Marvin Gaye’s estate in its successful lawsuit against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over the song Blurred Lines.
Busch from firm King and Ballow filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court in May, 2018, arguing that Arthur has generated $20 million (€16.37m) from the track. The lawsuit demanded “all streaming, distribution, publishing and touring revenue connected tothesong,”aswellas statutory damages.
The settlement brings an end to what was an increasingly bitter row.
The Script’s lawyer had previously said how Arthur was “dropped by his record label for public controversies, which caused a break in his career”.
He added that it “wasn’t until the release of ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’ that he achieved worldwide success.”
Arthur signed to Simon Cowel l’s label Syco after he won the X Factor in 2012, but was dropped in 2014 after a series of
Twitter rants.
Say You Won’t Let Go was the first song Arthur released after resigning to Syco in 2016. It spent three weeks at number one in 2016,
Jealous
Arthur appeared to publicly hit back at the lawsuit during a BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge appearance when he added his own verse to Jorja Smith’s Blue Light.
He proceeded to call out the band referring to them as “jealous” and “snakes”, and vowed that they would “never see a single flipping dime of mine”.
Arthur had also previously said that there was “no case” to answer over the supposed similarities.
“It ’ s 2017, there’s only seven notes in music,” he said.
The Sc r ipt declined to comme nt when contacted.