In July 2007, Avril Lavinge was sued by the 70’s pop group The Rubinoos for allegedly ripping off their hit “I Wanna be Your Boyfriend”. When listening to Avril Lavigne’s song “Girlfriend” and the Rubinoos’ song “I Wanna be Your Boyfriend” I probably wouldn’t say that copyright had been broken, but after looking at the similarities I would say that copyright could possibly have been broken.The lyrics are similar, but only in the chorus. The tempo of girlfriend is a little more upbeat then the Rubinoos’ song but the rhythm is similar. The choruses of both songs are probably what caught the Rubinoos’ attention. The chorus in Avril’s version is, “Hey, hey, you, you I don’t like your girlfriend” and the chorus of the Rubinoos’ song is “ Hey, hey, you, you I wanna be your boyfriend”. The rest of the song lyrics are different.
In my opinion, I don’t think that copyright has been broken. If we were to trust Avril’s statement “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.” to be true, can she really be blamed? It all depends on if you choose to believe her or not. I don’t think Avril would be stupid enough to say she made up the song when she knew from the start that the Rubinoos made it. I think she’s smart enough to ask to borrow songs before she would steal them. If she really did plagiarize that would be a very bad move on her part. It would give her a bad rep and people would know her as “the artist who tried to scam her way to the top.”
In a recent blog written by Avril she writes, “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 (co-writer) and I have done nothing wrong and there is no merit to their claim." I find this statement to really hit the nail on this issue. There are so many songs that can be similar if you just look at a certain phrase or even if you look at a similar beat, so does that mean they are all ripped off? And if so, who made the original song? In the end, everyone has ripped off everyone once in his or her life. I honestly think that the Rubinoos took it too far and they should have just left it the way it was.
On January 11, 2007 the Rubinoos had dropped the charges against Avril. Terry McBride, Avril’s manager, had previously told the Canadian Press that he might settle out of court to avoid hefty legal fees.
Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend
Click here for full lyrics to "Girlfriend"
Click here for full lyrics to "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"
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"Avril Lavigne hit with lawsuit over 'Girlfriend' ." CTV. 04 July 2007. CTV GlobeMedia. 16 Jan 2008 http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070704/Lavigne_lawsuit_070704/20070704/.
"Lavigne lawsuit has limited chances: lawyer." CTV. 05 July 2007. CTV GlobeMedia. 16 Jan 2008 http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070705/lavigne_law_070705/20070705/.
"Avril Lavigne vs. Plagiarism Claims." Yahoo! News. 2007. Yahoo! News. 16 Jan 2008 http://fcinternet.hwdsb.on.ca/~aaron.puley/MediaLogHandouts/Readings/Copyright/Avril-Plagiarism-Case.pdf.
"Settlement reached in Avril Lavigne 'Girlfriend' lawsuit." The Canadian Press. 09 Jan 2008. The Canadian Press. 16 Jan 2008 http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iRovlnvCVwoBp48U8xcThpMnmlBg.
"Avril Lavigne Goes Trucker." T-Shirt Watch. 16 Nov 2006. WordPress. 16 Jan 2008 http://www.tshirtwatch.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/avril-lavigne-trucker.jpg.
AvrilBandAids. 2008. Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.. 16 Jan 2008 http://www.petrosh.it/raveup/records/big/rubinoos.jpg.
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