Stella Lefty Plagiarism Backlash, Lil Durk Acquittal: Music's Wildest Legal Week

Stella Lefty has the No. 2 song in the country and the internet’s least favorite reputation right now.“Boston”already credits Noah Kahan because of its similarities to“Stick Season,”and another track on her album interpolates The Chicks’1998 hit“There’s Your Trouble.”Music industry experts say that kind of overlap usually isn’t infringement, but the criticism keeps escalating anyway. The Washington Post described the backlash as“some of the most intense online vitriol in recent memory,”and Rolling Stone said the internet is“tearing Stella Lefty apart.”

The contrast is hard to miss. Similar-sounding songs come out every month and most slide by without a single angry post. This one became a pile-on, which says as much about how the internet picks its targets as it does about the music itself.

The rest of the week’s music law news moved just as fast. Lil Durk was acquitted on all charges in an alleged murder-for-hire plot against Quando Rondo, though he still faces a racketeering trial. Bruce Springsteen won a New Jersey appeals court ruling that ends a second lawsuit over a 1967 Pontiac GTO on an album cover. Universal Music Group sued DistroKid over AI-generated content flooding streaming platforms. And Macklemore was fired from Ed Sheeran’s tour over pro-Palestine statements, with other supporting acts leaving as well. So, do you think Stella Lefty deserves the backlash, or has the internet gone too far? Sound off in the comments.