A pair of songwriters who claimed the 2018 hit “Eastside” by Benny Blanco, Halsey and Khalid ripped off one of their tracks have dropped their lawsuit.
Konstantine Lois of American XO and producer Shane Williams sued the three artists as well as co-writers Ed Sheeran and Nathan Perez in 2021 claiming the primary riff in “Eastside” is identical to the guitar riff in “Loveless," a song they wrote in 2015 that appears on the 2016 American XO album Pacific Coast Bloody Nose.
Their lawsuit alleged “when transposed to the same key, the ‘Loveless’ riff and the ‘Eastside’ riff are musically identical.”
On Tuesday, lawyers for Lois and Williams filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss the case.
The songwriters told Billboard, in a statement, they dropped the case because they lack the “financial resources or insurance to continue to fight.”
The statement added: “We continue to believe that our concerns are not without merit, however, simply put, continuing forward with the case would be too costly, challenging, and risky for us.”
Blanco’s lawyer Donald S. Zakarin told Billboard the plaintiffs dismissed their lawsuit because they were “certain to lose” and faced having to cover the defendants’ legal costs.
“While we are grateful that plaintiffs belatedly recognized they had no viable claim of copyright infringement, it is unfortunate that our clients … ever had to deal with an infringement accusation that never should have been made,” he said.
Last month, a judge denied a request by Lois and Williams to extend a deadline in the case.