Avril Lavigne Responds To Lawsuit

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Avril Lavigne Responds To Lawsuit

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Avril Lavigne has responded to a lawsuit brought against her by the
band The Ribinoos for plagiarism. Tommy Dubar, founder of The Rubinoos,
claims the singer's recent hit 'Girlfriend' bears a striking
resemblance to the 1978 Rubinoos song 'I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend'.
Responding to the lawsuit, which also names co-writer Luke Gottwald as
a defendant, Levigne stated in her blog that she has "never ripped
anyone off". Writing about the accusations she wrote: "You may have
heard some news that two guys who wrote for some band from the 1970s I
have never in my life heard of called the "Rubinoos" are trying to sue
me...They have a song called 'I Want To Be Your Boyfriend' that has no
musical similarities to the song 'Girlfriend' that Luke Gottwald and I
wrote together. They claim that a small part of the lyrics are the same
and are saying that I took these from them. I had never heard this song
in my life and their claim is based on five words! All songs share
similar lyrics and emotions. As humans we speak one language."
"Off
the top of my head, two other songs that I can immediately think of
with this type of lyric are "Hey, hey, you, you get off of my cloud" by
The Rolling Stones and "Hey little girl I want to be your boyfriend" by
the Ramones. Simply put, I have been falsely accused of ripping their
song off. Luke and I have done nothing wrong and there is no merit to
their claim."



The Canadian singer has also been accused by her former co-writer of
plagiarism. Songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, who worked with the singer in
her previous album, told Performing Songwriter magazine she will never
work with Avril again saying the singer will "cross the ethical line
and no one says anything. That's why I'll never work with her again".
In her blog Levigne also responded to the accusations writing,
"Chantal's comments are damaging to my reputation and a clear
defamation of my character and I am considering taking legal action.
Chantal has accused me of taking a song idea from her because I happen
to have a song on my new record with the same title. For the record, I
wrote a song with Evan Taubenfeld which coincidentally has the same
title as a song Chantal had sent me a few years ago. Our songs have no
similarities and opposite meanings, i.e. different lyrics, different
melody, different genres. In Chantal's own words "the only similarity
is in the title." I originally wrote this with Evan for his record and
I ended up with it. Funny enough when I decided to put 'Contagious' on
my album we had to change the words from "she" to "he" in order for it
to work on my record. There are hundreds of songs out there with the
title 'Contagious' 75+ on iTunes alone.



"Chantal has also made false accusations about my writing skills. I am
so over this topic. This letter is not about this. I am not going to
sit here and defend my writing skills. I don't have to prove anything
to anyone. I know who I am and what I have done and accomplished and no
one can take that away from me...My decision to discontinue working
with Chantal after co-writing together on my second record was simply
based on the fact that we had no hits together. That is why her name is
not on this record, despite her numerous attempts to be included, which
were always denied.



"From my perspective this is a clear case of bitterness. Chantal is
upset that she didn't get to be a part of my record. She did email me
after the article came out apologizing and I forgive her but I have to
put the truth out there so my fans are not confused by these false
accusations...Let it be crystal clear that I have not ripped anyone off
or done anything wrong. I have never had to deal with anything publicly
like this and surely never wanted to. I do not deserve this negative
press and attention. I take pride in the songs that I write and
appreciate the opportunities to work with some great writers and
musicians.



"I would like to say more but my lawyers have advised me not to. Why is
it when you get to a certain level people want to attack you? .... and
now I have said my peace."

Rockonthestreets.com