Anitta Wins Court Ruling Dismissing ‘Funk Rave’ Copyright Lawsuit: ‘Speculative at Best’

Anitta has won a court ruling dismissing a lawsuit that claimed she stole key elements of her 2023 hit “Funk Rave” after a judge said the star likely never even heard the accuser’s song.

Giorgio Trovato and Giuseppe Di Caccamo Jr. claimed in a January lawsuit that the Brazilian superstar (Larissa de Macedo Machado) lifted the rhythm and chorus of their 2006 song “Sácalo.” But in a ruling Monday, Judge K. Michael Moore says the case has a “fatal” flaw.

It’s unlikely, the judge says, that Anitta, 32, ever even “heard plaintiffs’ song when she was a 14-year-old resident of Brazil.” Though the two accusers also argued that her co-writer Diplo might have heard the earlier track, the judge says that claim is “speculative at best.”

“Allowing plaintiffs’ claims to proceed on such unsubstantiated and unpled theories would not pass muster,” Judge Moore writes.

Trovato and Di Caccamo sued Anitta in January, claiming that portions of “Funk Rave” were “substantially similar, if not identical” to their song, which they said had been released in 2007 by a group named Erotico.

But in any American copyright lawsuit, an accuser must show that a defendant had “access” to the original work to give them a chance to copy it. Though Trovato and Di Caccamo claim they sent the song to many DJs and that Diplo could have heard it, Judge Moore says that simply isn’t enough for their lawsuit to survive.

“Plaintiffs [do not] allege they provided a copy of their song to him or a venue where he was present,” the judge says. “Plaintiffs ask the court to excuse them from pleading not only how Diplo might have shared plaintiffs’ song with Machado, but also how Diplo might have accessed it in the first place.”

Judge Moore also says the case fails for an even more direct reason: That Trovato and Di Caccamo can’t show that the songs are similar enough. He says the word “Sácalo” that appears in both tracks is “very common in Spanish-language music” and likely isn’t protected by copyrights, and that other alleged similarities face a similar problem.

“The court previously instructed plaintiffs that they must identify the specific element of the chorus that is original to them,” the judge writes. “Plaintiffs have not done so here.”

An attorney for Trovato and Di Caccamo did not immediately return a request for comment. An attorney for Anitta declined to comment.