Celebrity Justice
*NSYNC *NCOURT Over Song

Posted May 8th 2007 8:00PM by TMZ Staff

Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass and the rest of the boys from *NSYNC, along with their label Jive Records, are being blasted over a hit song from the past that they allegedly ripped off -- and the dispute could cost 'em more than $10 million bucks.

In a lawsuit filed yesterday in a Las Vegas Federal Court, a musician named Troy Alexander (aka "Royal T") claims he met with Jive records in 1990 and introduced them to his demo tape of the song "Up Against the Wall." According to documents, JIVE signed *NSYNC a few years later, who then released a song "substantially similar" to Alexander's work in 2001. The song in question featured the same title and was featured on the smash album "Celebrity." The boys also performed the song on their "PopOdyssey" tour.
NSYNC
According to Troy's attorneys at Callister and Reynolds, the similarities are much more of a "battle of written lyrics," as opposed to sound.

A rep for Jive told TMZ that they were not aware of the claim and had not been served with any papers.

Filed under: Celebrity Justice, Justin Timberlake

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(Page 1 of 8) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments

1. WHO CARES......P~~~

Posted at 8:22PM on May 8th 2007 by Nance

2. JUST ANOTHER STUPID LAWSUIT, TYING UP THE COURT SYSTEM!

THE LYRICS ARE NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING THE SAME, IN TERMS OF WHAT IT IS SAYING.

THE N*SYNC VERSION IS LOVELY.
THE OTHER ONE READS AMATEURISHLY.

THE OTHER GUY MUST HAVE A LOT OF TIME ON HIS HANDS.
I PREDICT THIS CASE WILL BE THROWN OUT THE VERY FIRST DAY OF THE HEARING, THUS SPARING A JURY AN EXPENSIVE, STUPID, USELESS TRIAL.
GO, N*SYNC!

Posted at 8:38PM on May 8th 2007 by ONE WHO KNOWS

3. Not seeing the similarity either... The title's the same... annnd.. That's it? If this guy was so concerned, why did it take this long to show up as a lawsuit? (Maybe he had a legitimate reason for it taking 6 years... If he does it looks like that would be the only legitimate thing here...)

Posted at 8:43PM on May 8th 2007 by Valerie

4. I'm not getting. They're nothing alike. Am I missing something?

Posted at 9:10PM on May 8th 2007 by D

5. The lyrics are not close to being similar.
"Royal T" should stop now before it gets even more embarrassing.
This is the reason real cases cannot be tried correctly in California. Too much petty made up crap being taken seriously by the D.A.'s.

Posted at 9:32PM on May 8th 2007 by Rose Paul

6. Granted the lyrics may not be copied word for word, but there are enough similarities to see they came from the same writer. Everyone is berating Mr. Alexander for fighting for what is his, when they should be giving him props for going up against a group like NSYNC knowing the battle ahead will be a vicious one. i wish him luck and hope he gets what he is entitled to.

Posted at 9:34PM on May 8th 2007 by AMEJ

7. They both suck...wait a minute I just saw Superficial said Lindsay Lohan has no nipples...now that's worth checking out. :P

Posted at 10:38PM on May 8th 2007 by Steven Bacon

8. Am I slow or what??? I don't know what they are suing N'Sync over!!!! What some people do for attention!!!

Posted at 11:10PM on May 8th 2007 by Sandra

9. Kudos to Troy Alexander
Another classic example of plagiarism. Originality is not NSYNC's forte. They started out as a dressed up carbon copy of BACKSTREET BOYS. They had a uniqueness and sounded like BOYS and NSYNC????? - boys and girls.
If anyone of the above people would bother to check all the lyrics on THE DOCUMENTS you would see that it has been slightly altered but the intent and content is definitely too close to be claimed as an original by NSYNC.
If someone took your white sneakers and painted them red - would they still be your sneakers??? You would want to be paid for them or a new pair - right? Same difference in this case.
Too often unknown and struggling artists are ripped off by the elite well-known celebrities and are not in a position to fight. It's time for the courts to make a statement - plagiarism can no longer be allowed.
Take it to the Supreme Court if you have to Troy - GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!

Posted at 12:10AM on May 9th 2007 by LoLo

10. all i could do is laugh ..... what they used the same title and some of the words are in their lyrics. but two totally different subjects nothing alike sorry unless `using any words that he may have used at all were copy write infringed..sorry subject matter not the same i dont see it does he own all the words he uses that means he can sue anyone he wants now.

Posted at 12:30AM on May 9th 2007 by D2D

11.
What's ten mil to those guys?

Posted at 12:50AM on May 9th 2007 by billyboy

12. I'm sorry but I don't see it the "similarities"... and this song was on an album released in 2001, its SIX YEARS LATER! Why now? Sounds like an act of desperation to me...

Posted at 1:01AM on May 9th 2007 by RJ

13. Uhhh...Virgin Mary....you're ignorance is showing!

Posted at 2:23AM on May 9th 2007 by Right

14. First, its funny to see people saying that 'nsync ripped off bsb. BSB ripped off nkotb (oh pardon, the guy who created them AND put nsync together used to rent planes for nkotb and the other guy was their tour manager), and we can keep going back in time and nearly every single artist is similar to one before (NKOTB was created based on the Jackson 5 and the osmonds). The rest of the folks talking about plagerism, apparently didn't read the lyrics and if they read the whole thing and still thought it was the same song... This should be taken as seriously as Paris Hilton's appeal process. One song talks about drugs, cops and violence, the other talks about a guy and a girl in a club, no drugs, no getting hauled away and getting handcuffed. Maybe that's the same to some of you... And apparently the first "artist" didn't want to be taken seriously because they couldn't even spell everything correctly before giving it to a record company. (there's a difference between leaving off a g on the end of a word and spelling things like criminolgy and "base".. uh don't you mean bass, turbo?).

Posted at 2:52AM on May 9th 2007 by Valerie

15. nothing alike, the dude is just a pathetic money grubber looking for a free handout

Posted at 3:18AM on May 9th 2007 by Evil

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