A federal judge has found that a hit song performed by Colombian pop star Shakira was indirectly copied from another songwriter's work.
New York Judge Alvin Hellerstein, said Shakira's Spanish-language version of Loca, released in 2010, had infringed on a song by Dominican singer Ramon Arias Vazquez.
The Spanish version a collaboration with Dominican rapper Eduard Edwin Bello Pou, better known as El Cata was widely released as a single around the world and went on to sell more than five million copies.
Loca was also included on Shakira's 2010 released album Sale el Sol and topped Billboard Magazine's Latin charts.
In the ruling on Tuesday, Judge Hellerstein
said that while the hit single had been based on an earlier version of a
song recorded by Bello [El Cata], it had been copied from Arias
Vasquez's original song.
"There is no dispute that Shakira's version of the song was based on Bello's version," said the judge, in his ruling.
"Accordingly, I find that, since Bello had
copied Arias, whoever wrote Shakira's version of the song also
indirectly copied Arias," he concluded.
The ruling is a victory for the plaintiff,
Mayimba Music, which holds the rights to Arias's work and which sued
Sony Corp of America and several other Sony units in 2012.
The judge found only two of them liable, Sony/ATV Latin and Sony/ATV Discos, for distributing the Latina star's song.
However Hellerstein dismissed claims that Shakira's English version of the track - featuring Dizzie Rascal - infringed on copyright laws, citing a lack of evidence.
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