Judge rules Shakira track ‘copied’ another songwriter’s work

A Spanish-language version of 'Loca' has been found to be in breach of copyright

A track performed by Shakira has been found to have ‘copied’ another songwriters’ work by a judge in New York.

The Spanish-language version of the track ‘Loca’ – a collaboration with Dominican rapper Eduard Edwin Bello Pou, better known as El Cata – was not released as a single in the UK but was released in other territories, selling over 5 million copies and topping Billboard’s Latin charts.

A judge in New York has now found that this version of the song infringes on a song by Dominican singer Ramon Arias Vazquez, the BBC reports.

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In a ruling on Tuesday (August 19), Judge Alvin Hellerstein said that while Shakira’s single had been based on an earlier version of a song recorded by Bello [El Cata], that itself had been copied from Arias Vasquez’s original song.

“There is no dispute that Shakira’s version of the song was based on Bello’s version,” the judge wrote. “Accordingly, I find that since Bello had copied Arias, whoever wrote Shakira’s version of the song also indirectly copied Arias.”

The case has yet to determine damages to be given to Mayimba Music, which holds the rights to Arias’ work.

Shakira, who is from Columbia, performed at the World Cup closing ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on July 13. Shortly before that, she became the first person to pass 100 million ‘likes’ on Facebook.

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