14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since Britney Spears premiered her first single off the upcoming “Femme Fatale” album, “Hold It Against Me,” country duo The Bellamy Brothers have been constantly stating she and her team had ripped one of their songs off for it. The brothers are now being sued.
As we also noted on previous occasions, The Bellamy Brothers claim Britney ripped off their “If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me” for her latest chart-topper.
In one of their most recent interviews, right after Spears premiered the official video for the song, they even said they were considering legal action against the pop star, even though she doesn’t get songwriting credits for the track.
The person who did write it, though, is furious that the brothers have been shooting their mouth off to the press about it, especially since there is barely any similarity between the two songs save for the title.
Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald has filed a lawsuit against the country duo for the ongoing smear campaign and for using Spears’ name to draw attention to their own material, TMZ reports.
“In a federal lawsuit filed today, Lukasz ‘Dr. Luke’ Gottwald says The Bellamy Brothers launched a ‘smear campaign’ by claiming Brit’s hit – co-penned by Gottwald – was just a knockoff of their 1979 song,” the e-zine writes.
“Gottwald also claims the Brothers’ attack was ‘a publicity stunt aimed to increase their record sales... and to combat their dwindling relevance.’ Ouch,” TMZ further says.
Dr. Luke is seeking unspecified damages for defamation – and he also wants a court order to state “once and for all” that Spears’ song is not a rip-off of The Bellamy Brothers’ ballad, thus preventing these from ever making this claim to the media.
“Howard and I have no personal beef with Britney. She’s a talented gal. But professionally we feel completely ripped off. We will without doubt take the appropriate legal action if our attorneys agree we’ve been ripped off,” David Bellamy was saying only a short while ago.
As of now, The Bellamy Brothers have not commented in any way the lawsuit brought against them.