Two Hamilton songwriters have told of their "fight for justice" over a copyright row with The Weeknd .
Lanarkshire duo Scott McCulloch and Billy Smith claim the Grammy Award winning star's song 'A Lonely Night' was ripped off from their own track, 'I need to Love', written almost two decades ago.
And they told this week how the battle could be worth half a million dollars to them.
The song was penned with Essex musician Brian Clover in their Hamilton studio with the ongoing plagiarism battle said to be putting the English performer's home and life savings on the line.
Despite a US judge throwing out the case last year, the trio are ready to take on the “music mafia” by appealing their case through the US Court of Appeal’s Ninth Circuit.
Scott told the Daily Record : “The music industry is like the music mafia.
"They cherry-pick the best songs and then say ‘take it to court’. The chances are you won’t win. But you’ve got to be in it to win it.
“ The Weeknd is one of the biggest artists in the world right now. He’s huge. It’s very much a David and Goliath battle.”
Scott, 48, Billy, 57, and co-writer Brian are suing Abel Tesfaye, who performs as The Weeknd , saying his song infringes their copyright.
They say Universal acquired the rights to their tracks in 2008 and the song in question was shared to an online platform accessed by music execs worldwide before all rights were relinquished to them in 2016.
Brian first heard The Weeknd's track while he was shopping in Topman, leading to a legal case being lodged in the US in 2019.
As part of their battle to prove the source of the tune, a musicologist said “substantial similarities” could “only result from copying”.
It is reported that an offer of $100,000 was made through lawyers. However, the track's value was never been officially declared and the Hamilton writers pls Brian could be owed a percentage of $50million.
The trio now have new legal representation and say they are "ready to reveal a dossier of evidence to the courts which they have so far been barred from disclosing by lawyers".
Billy added: “If the evidence we had was shown on day one we believe we would have won our case.
"We’ve had various lawyers. If there is a copyright infringement on a song the industry knows the person has to have enough money to get a lawyer, but even when you do, that lawyer works for the industry. The industry polices itself.
“We have approached the police in Scotland, FBI, CID, fraud squad and nobody wants to look at it. We have had to become our own attorneys.”
In a legal filing, The Weeknd’s lawyers described the trio’s lawsuit as “frivolous”.
The Daily Record has contacted lawyers and Universal Music for comment.
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