A song performed by Grammy winner Olivia Dean \u201ccopied in large and significant part\u201d from Bill Withers\u2019 hit \u201cJust the Two of Us,\u201d a copyright complaint filed recently in California alleges.<\/p>\n
Grammy winner Dean\u2019s mellow love ballad \u201cI\u2019ve Seen It\u201d<\/a> is at the center of a copyright infringement case brought by the music group that oversees Withers\u2019 catalog. Mattie Music Group, doing business as Bleunig Music, accused Capitol Records and Universal Music, among other co-defendants, of one count of copyright infringement in a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Neither Dean nor her co-writers are named defendants. <\/p>\n The complaint says representatives for the music group in August 2026 \u201ccame to what they considered to be the obvious and inescapable conclusion that \u2018I\u2019ve Seen It\u2019 copied in large and significant part\u201d the late singer\u2019s \u201cJust the Two of Us\u201d after listening to Dean\u2019s tune several times. \u201cI\u2019ve Seen It\u201d is the final track on Dean\u2019s sophomore album \u201cThe Art of Loving,\u201d released in September 2025. Dean is best known for her breakout hits \u201cMan I Need\u201d and \u201cSo Easy (To Fall in Love)\u201d and she won the Grammy Award<\/a> for best new artist in February. The British singer, 27, composed and co-wrote the lyrics with Bastian Langeb\u00e6k and Max Wolfgang, according to the song credits on Spotify. <\/p>\n Neither representatives for Dean nor Universal Music Group, which owns Capitol Records, immediately responded on Monday to requests for comment. <\/p>\n Withers, the soul singer also known for enduring hits \u201cAin\u2019t No Sunshine\u201d and \u201cLean on Me,\u201d and jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. released \u201cJust the Two of Us\u201d in 1981 for the latter\u2019s \u201cWinelight\u201d album. Ralph MacDonald and William Salter wrote the song with Withers, who died of heart complications on March 30, 2020.<\/a> He was 81. <\/p>\n Mattie Music Group alleges that because of the enduring popularity and success of \u201cJust the Two of Us,\u201d Dean and her collaborators \u201chad a reasonable opportunity to encounter the Original Work before creating \u2018I\u2019ve Seen It.\u2019\u201d The complaint takes issue with the song\u2019s \u201crepeated copying of the distinctively protectable melody\u201d and alleges the musicians \u201cclearly infringed\u201d on the copyrights related to Withers\u2019 Grammy-winning song.<\/p>\n The complaint also said Mattie Music Group enlisted the help of musicologist Alexander Stewart to determine \u201csubstantial\u201d similarities between the two songs. Stewart \u201cconcluded that the works contain substantial similarities in protectable musical expression, including repeated copying of the distinctively protectable melody,\u201d the complaint alleges. The music group also said it notified the defendants on Aug. 17 of \u201cthe material musical similarities\u201d but that the defendants \u201ccontinued reproducing, distributing, licensing, publicly performing and commercially exploiting\u201d Dean\u2019s \u201cI\u2019ve Seen It.\u201d<\/p>\n Mattie Music Group previously brought legal action against rapper Kendrick Lamar in 2016<\/a> for allegedly lifting from Withers\u2019 \u201cDon\u2019t You Want to Stay.\u201d That case ended in a settlement.<\/a><\/p>\n The complaint states the music group is seeking an injunction from further copyright infringement and an unspecified amount in damages, including defendants\u2019 profits from the alleged infringement, legal fees and statutory damages up to $150,000 for willful infringement.<\/p>\n Dean is on her Art of Loving tour and is scheduled to perform Monday and Tuesday at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.<\/p>\n Times editorial library director Cary Schneider contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A song performed by Grammy winner Olivia Dean \u201ccopied in large and significant part\u201d from Bill Withers\u2019 hit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":917692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,485748,485751,27949,485749,50885,142407,134,36015,136,485747,485753,92659,6984,485752,24870,2489,485750],"class_list":["post-917691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bill-withers","tag-capitol-records","tag-complaint","tag-copyright-infringement-case","tag-dean","tag-defendant","tag-entertainment","tag-hit","tag-music","tag-music-group","tag-original-work","tag-representative","tag-song","tag-sophomore-album","tag-universal-music","tag-us","tag-wither"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}