Celebrity Justice
Man Claims Foxx Stole His Song

Posted Jun 21st 2006 3:37PM by TMZ Staff

Oprah Winfrey & Jamie FoxxTMZ has obtained  court papers in a lawsuit filed by a man claiming Jamie Foxx is a song thief.

In the suit, first reported by World Entertainment News Network, Michael A. Johnson alleges he was watching "The Oprah Winfrey Show" when he saw Foxx perform the song "Heaven" from his album, "Unpredictable." Johnson claims the song is a "rearranged version" of his song, "One of God's Angels is AWOL."

Johnson claims that "The songs are so similar that if my song was released today people would think I copied Jamie's song." 

In his crude, handwritten suit filed last March in a Michigan federal court, Johnson is demanding $15 million each from Foxx, J-Records, Sony Records, BMG/Sony Entertainment and Face Production.

Johnson says he copyrighted the song in 2003 and sent out a mass mailing of several of his songs in 2004. Johnson claims J-Records and Sony Records were included in the mailing. Foxx's album was released by J-Records in December 2005.

Johnson's ends his complaint by writing "Thank you for hearing me out your honor."




Johnson says in the suit, "The songs are so similar, that if my song was released today, people would think I copied Jamie's song ... I wanted to be recognized for the talented songwriter I believe I am."

Johnson continues to say in the suit, "Maybe Mr. Foxx thought or assumed because my songs were handwritten that I was not professional enough to have had my songs copyrighted and took advantage of that."

In a letter sent to TMZ, Johnson included a breakdown of where he feels the two songs are similar. One of the comparisons Johnson points out is between Foxx's line "God's angel is lying next to me" and his line "If God looked down He'll see His angel is here with me."

Johnson lists seven other comparisons; some seem more similar than others. Click here to see Johnson's complete list.

Calls to Jamie Foxx's reps were not immediately returned.

Filed under: Celebrity Justice, Music


Tags: jamie foxx, JamieFoxx

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1. I had a vague notion of an angel once. Can I sue Foxx too? :)

Posted at 4:03PM on Jun 21st 2006 by lycanthos

2. Devil with the Blue Dress On - I'm thinking Mitch Ryder may want to consider filing suit againt Bill Clinton (or Monica Lewinski, or BOTH!)

Posted at 4:24PM on Jun 21st 2006 by Indigo Burn

3. Is that guy for real? What a jackass....

Posted at 5:16PM on Jun 21st 2006 by Sierra

4. There are too many similarities (especially the words in parentheses that I guess are supposed to be background) in the .pdf list if lyrics. I think this guys has a good case. It's a good thing he copyrighted his songs.

Posted at 5:46PM on Jun 21st 2006 by tee

5. This is not a laughing matter! I am a singer/songwriter who's experienced this same situation. My song was stolen by a multi-platinum selling female pop/R&B group who worked with the same producer that I did, so I know first hand how this guy feels. People who are involved in the music industry know how often this happens to up and coming songwriters and it's just not right! I am a huge fan of Jamie Foxx, always have been, but I hope this guy gets what he's asking for because I believe him. These established artist get away with doing this to people everyday! Karma is a bitch! When your out there creating music, that's a part of you that your putting your heart and soul in that song and for people to just steal it is wrong! Forget the money, at least give credit for writing it or something! That way they can make a name for themselves and instead of just stealing someone's art your helping them out as well. In the case of my song, they took some of my words and changed them around and even used a few of my melodies, the feel of the song, everything! I tried to get a lawyer to cover my case but because of the level of celebrity of the accused, no entertainment lawyer would want to take the chance and go up against the star of the groups father! (Hint hint). I can do 2 things, one just let it go and take pride in the fact that my song was good enough for platinum artists to steal and continue struggling to reach my goal of becoming a successful artist while my song makes millions for that group or I can continue struggling while persuing a copyright infringement claim against them. What would you do?

Posted at 6:26PM on Jun 21st 2006 by Mochahontas007

6. For the past year I've studied cases involving copyright infrigment and this guy has a stron case...there are just too many similarities. I have not heard the melody, but the writing certainly gets him enough of a case.

Posted at 9:21PM on Jun 21st 2006 by Nenita

7. First of all, those are not direct quotes from Jamie's song. They are paraphrased to make them sound more similar. The parenthetic phrases aren't in the song at all. Also, just another ploy to make the songs seem similar. His song is about his daughter and not some random chick he thinks is hot. Dude needs to stop trippin'! Is he going to sue every guy who has used a line about a woman being an angel from Heaven to pick up women in bars? Get real!

Posted at 9:02AM on Jun 22nd 2006 by Tasha

8. Are you CRAZY!!! Jamie is too talented to steal anything. He was talented back on In Living Color, The Jamie Foxx Show and all other shows. Stealing a song is beneathe him and this guy is just out for money. GET A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted at 1:12AM on Jun 25th 2006 by Tiffany

9. How does someone "paraphrase" words from a song when they are claiming copyright infringement? That's crazy. I hope he gets what's owed tohimif the song was stolen. If he paraphrased Jaime's song then that's just plain stupid.

Posted at 8:50PM on Jun 25th 2006 by Dana

10. This guy is ridiculous. None of the lyrics are are even close. Anybody can write a song about a girl from heaven. The 2 songs sound nothing alike and the comparisons are totally different lyrics. Foxx is too talented to even think about copying some bum's lyrics. This guy is just trying to get paid. He doesn't deserve a thing.

Posted at 11:38PM on Jun 27th 2006 by Dennis

11. I think that songwriters are successfull in what they do because they know that people are into "different" ok people use a different choice of words everyday are we wrong becase it possibly could mean the same thing? The song was clearly an expression of how he felt about his daughter being born. If it is not an identical match no-one can automatically assume that Mr. Johnson wrote this particular song .What are we as fans to do, Read in between the lines and say oh yeah he says or means the same thing in his lyrics kinda........ I happen to love the album and i think that all of this is a misunderstanding

Posted at 7:36PM on Jul 10th 2006 by Tamara Byrd

12. OK. OK. OK....HOLD UP. I think in order to trully feel a song it must be heard, soooooo, if the guy feels it was stolen, lets have him sing his song and compare it with the way Jamie sings his song, notice I divided the two, not the same babe until proven....and LAY OFF MY BABY, HE'S AGOOD GUY. speaking of Angels God knows all and honestly He will decide who the song belongs to. hopefully this can be resolved peacefully.

Posted at 10:14AM on Jul 25th 2006 by angela