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ABBA stars win court battle

Abba

Abba

They get writing credit for Swedish musical

ABBA stars Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus won a court battle today (March 23) over writing credit for one of their musicals.

The dispute involves the two men and writer Carl-Johan Seth, who attempted to claim main credit for the musical 'Kristina Fran Duvemala', which has been seen by more than a million people in Sweden, and may be heading for Broadway.

Andersson and Ulvaeus claimed that Seth's work was unusable, so they used a script by director Lars Rudolfsson and dramatist Jan Mark, according to the Associated Press. The ABBA men wrote the music and songs for the play.

Seth's lawyer, Staffan Michelson, said his client would appeal the Stockholm District Court's ruling.

Michelson contends that both parties signed a license agreement before the musical's premiere in 1995 in which they agreed to equal ownership of the script.

As previously reported, Ulvaeus was ordered by the Swedish Tax Authority to pay $2.1 million in back taxes earlier this year.

--By our Los Angeles staff.
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