Nate Rau | The Tennessean

Russian producer and songwriter Arty is suing producer Marshmello for copyright infringement in a lawsuit that puts electronic dance music heavyweights in opposite corners.

Arty claims that Marshmello stole elements from his remix of the One Republic song, "I Lived."

In addition to Marshmello, the suit names his cowriters on the song, Daniel Campbell Smith, the cofounder of the British rock band Bastille, and Steve Mac as defendants.

Arty and Marshmello share a music publisher, Kobalt Music, which is also a defendant in the suit.

The lawsuit is unique in that the underlying composition is not the subject of the legal dispute. Instead, Arty claims the beats and other components he added to his version of the song, called "I Lived - Arty Remix" were copied by Marshmello and his collaborators for their hit song "Happier."

Because the copyright lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, focuses only on the remixed elements of the song, the case is sure to grab attention in the music industry. Arty is represented by prominent Nashville copyright attorney Richard Busch, who has won a number of landmark cases, notably Marvin Gaye's lawsuit against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke over the song "Blurred Lines."

Arty's remix of "I Lived" was a commercial success in the EDM world. Arty has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years thanks to his remixes of hit songs. He remixed the One Republic hit song in 2014.

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According to the lawsuit, Arty and Marshmello run in the same EDM circles and have performed at the same concerts in the past. The lawsuit claims it is likely that Marshmello became familiar with Arty's remix because they frequently crossed paths.

Arty claims that Marshmello's hit song "Happier," which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, directly copies from the "I Lived - Arty Remix."

"Happier" was No. 1 on the dance music charts for 31 straight weeks and has been certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. A lyric video of the song has over 333 million views on YouTube and the official music video has over 283 million views.

On Spotify, "Happier" has over 729 million streams.

Arty is suing for the court to find that "Happier" infringed on his song, that he is entitled to damages and for an accounting of all revenue generated by "Happier" in order to determine how much money he should be entitled to.

"Everything we have to say is set out in detail in the complaint, including the compelling musical transcriptions comparing the two works," Busch said.