Marshmello is firing back against a copyright infringement case charging him with ripping off of another producer. Back in May, Russian DJ Artem Stoliarov, aka Arty, sued Marshmello and Universal Music. Arty claims Marshmello and Bastille‘s popular hit ‘Happier‘ was a direct knockoff of his remix of One Republic‘s ‘I Lived.’ He pointed to the four-bar synthesizer and declared the track mimicked certain audio elements from his remix.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Marshmello, real name Christopher Comstock, denies all allegations made in the case brought forth by Arty. Mello has called the case “an exercise in futility.”
In newly filed court documents, he states, “In obtaining permission to create the Remix Composition five years ago, Plaintiff signed a Remixer Declaration in which he not only expressly disclaimed any “ownership or financial interest” in the Remix Composition, but he also agreed not to “make any claims to the contrary.”
Arty released his remix in 2014, four years before the debut of ‘Happier’ in 2018. Nonetheless, the track was a smashing success. It broke the record for the most weeks spent as No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. Now, months after the case first surfaced, Marshmello and his team are demanding that Arty drop the charges entirely. He claims Arty doesn’t have rights to the remix.
We’ll have to wait and see how this turns out. You can be the judge in the meantime. Listen to both of these tracks down below.
