The copyright lawsuit over Nickelback‘s song “Rockstar” has been dismissed, Billboard reports.
The suit was filed in 2020 by Texas musician Kirk Johnston, who claimed that the ‘Back’s All the Right Reasons single copied “substantial portions” of his song, titled “Rock Star.”
However, in a ruling obtained by Billboard, the case’s judge declared that Johnston’s claim “borders on the absurd.”
“This includes, for example, any suggestion that the two baseball analogies in Nickelback’s work are evidence that the band copied Johnston’s lyric ‘might buy the Cowboys’ professional football team simply because both are ‘references to sports,'” the ruling reads.
Not only that, the judge wrote that the two songs simply “do not sound alike.”
“Where both songs evoke similar themes, they are rendered dissimilar through the vivid detail of the original expression in Nickelback’s lyrics,” the judge said.
“The Court has conducted a side-by-side examination of the works, carefully listening to and considering all versions of the songs of record,” the ruling continued. “As an ‘ordinary listener,’ the court concludes that a layman would not consider the songs or even their ‘hooks’ to be strikingly similar.”
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