{"id":11126,"date":"2026-07-12T18:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/bts-hit-swim-faces-copyright-lawsuit-claiming-it-was-stolen-from-demo-obvious-and-inescapable\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T18:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:47:08","slug":"bts-hit-swim-faces-copyright-lawsuit-claiming-it-was-stolen-from-demo-obvious-and-inescapable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/bts-hit-swim-faces-copyright-lawsuit-claiming-it-was-stolen-from-demo-obvious-and-inescapable\/","title":{"rendered":"BTS Hit ‘Swim’ Faces Copyright Lawsuit Claiming It Was Stolen From Demo: ‘Obvious and Inescapable’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tA new lawsuit claims that BTS\u2019s chart-topping smash \u201cSwim\u201d stole key elements from an unpublished demo by three little-known songwriters.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a case filed Wednesday (July 8) that was obtained and first reported by Billboard<\/em>, Steve Cooper, Jon Sandler and Greylyn Johnson claim the BTS hit \u2014 which debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 this spring as the lead track off ARIRANG \u2014 <\/em>has many \u201csubstantial similarities\u201d to their own song of the same name.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cUpon listening several times [to \u201cSwim\u201d], plaintiffs came to what they considered to be the obvious and inescapable conclusion that [it] copied in very large part the original work and clearly infringed their copyrights,\u201d lawyers for the trio of songwriters write in the complaint.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit doesn\u2019t name BTS or its members as defendants; instead, it targets their label, HYBE, and its subsidiaries, HYBE America and Big Hit Music Co. It also names the songwriters behind the BTS track, including former OneRepublic member Ryan Tedder, a Grammy-winning hitmaker who has also written songs for Taylor Swift, Beyonc\u00e9 and Adele.<\/p>\n

\n\tA key requirement in any copyright lawsuit is proving that an alleged infringer had \u201caccess\u201d to the materials they supposedly copied. That\u2019s often a difficult task for plaintiffs, and high-profile music cases against Dua Lipa and Anitta have been rejected on those grounds in recent years.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Wednesday\u2019s complaint, the three accusers say they started sending out copies of their demo in March 2025 \u201cto various parties for them to consider.\u201d That allegedly included to execs at Artist Publishing Group, who the plaintiffs claim \u201clistened to the [demo] and shared it with others,\u201d including some of the songwriters who eventually worked on \u201cSwim.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the BTS track was released, lawyers for Cooper, Sandler and Johnson say they hired a musicologist named Alexander Stewart who analyzed the songs and confirmed their suspicions. Their lawsuit quotes heavily from his report, which concludes that the BTS version contained numerous elements that were \u201cunequivocally taken\u201d from the demo.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese similarities encompass the signature phrase (or \u2018hook\u2019) referencing the title, unusual harmonies, textures, and rhythmic and lyrical elements,\u201d Stewart wrote in the report. \u201cThese elements are unique in the aggregate as well as distinctive individually. In my expert opinion, independent creation of BTS can be ruled out and copying is the inescapable conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStewart has been involved in a number of high-profile music lawsuits, including the case against Ed Sheeran over Marvin Gaye\u2019s \u201cLet\u2019s Get It On\u201d and his 2014 hit \u201cThinking Out Loud,\u201d as well as another case against Led Zeppelin over \u201cStairway To Heaven.\u201d In both lawsuits, he was similarly retained by the accusers \u2014 and in both, juries eventually rejected those accusations.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter hiring lawyers, Cooper, Sandler and Johnson say they contacted HYBE and the other defendants in \u201can attempt to resolve this dispute,\u201d but that such efforts went nowhere: \u201cDefendants either did not respond or were unable to reach a resolution with Plaintiffs, necessitating the filing of this action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReps for Hybe, APG and Tedder did not immediately return requests for comment. The defendants will file formal arguments in the months ahead rebutting the claims of the lawsuit and seeking to have it dismissed.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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A new lawsuit claims that BTS\u2019s chart-topping smash \u201cSwim\u201d stole key elements from an unpublished demo by three little-known songwriters. In a case filed Wednesday (July 8) that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7788,1092,429,8226,458,1067,8228,303,8227,4589,7039],"class_list":["post-11126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-bts","tag-claiming","tag-copyright","tag-demo","tag-faces","tag-hit","tag-inescapable","tag-lawsuit","tag-obvious","tag-stolen","tag-swim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}