Adele in legal trouble: 'Million Years Ago' banned worldwide for plagiarism

Adele is facing a case of alleged plagiarism for her song 'Million Years Ago', which a judge in Brazil has ordered to be removed from streaming platforms worldwide, after she was accused of having "copied" 'Mulheres' (Women) from 1995, the creation of Brazilian composer Toninho Geraes

With this injunction, handed down last Friday by Judge Victor Torres of the Sixth Commercial Court of Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian subsidiaries of Sony and Universal Music, labels that distribute Adele's music, are threatened with fines of $8,000 if they fail to comply.

The judge's order instructs Sony and Universal Music to immediately and globally cease the "use, reproduction, editing, distribution or marketing of the song 'Million Years Ago', by any means, medium, physical or digital medium, streaming or sharing platform".

For his part, Fredimio Trotta, the lawyer for Brazilian composer Toninho Geraes, described the court's decision as "a milestone for Brazilian music", because it has been copied many times to compose international hits.

Geraes sues Adele for royalties and moral damages

What Geraes is seeking with the lawsuit is financial compensation for the loss of royalties and moral damages, and wants to receive $160,000, as well as credit as co-author of 'Million Years Ago', released in 2015 on the British singer's album '25'.

Geraes denounces plagiarism of his samba song 'Mulheres', which was recorded by Brazilian singer Martinho da Vila on an album released in 1995.

Universal Music has already responded and filed a request with the Rio de Janeiro judge to "revoke" his decision to ban the song by Adele for alleged plagiarism.

According to agencia EFE, which had access to the document from the law firm representing Universal Music, the request argues that "the main basis of the injunction is a melodic similarity" and clarifies that in music it is a different concept from plagiarism, while adding that it is due to a "musical cliche" that there are "similarities between the two songs - and dozens of others".