James Newman successfully defeats song-theft claim over his Rudimental hit
James Newman has successfully fought off a legal claim by another songwriter who accused him of ripping off her work on Rudimental’s 2013 hit ‘Waiting All Night’, which Newman co-wrote.Kelly-Marie Smith initially also sued all three members of Rudimental and another co-writer, Jonny Harris, in relation her claim that ‘Waiting All Night’ infringed the copyright in her 2007 song ‘Can You Tell Me?’ However, it was her claim against Newman that was the focus by the time the matter reached the the high court in London, because he had penned the elements of ‘Waiting All Night’ that were similar to Smith’s song.Smith claimed that, although her song never had a commercial release in 2007, it had been posted online and circulated around the music