The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, is being sued as a British publishing company claims the Canadian star illegally sampled parts from the motion picture ‘The Machinist’ for his hit song ‘The Hills.’
Apparently the score was originally composed by Tom Raybould which features in the 2013 film ‘The Machinist.’
The lawsuit which was filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles states that the Canadian singer: ‘copywrighted musical composition of an original song, titled Revolution on the soundtrack album and Revolution Sequence on the cue sheet, from the score for the motion picture entitled The Machinist.’
The lawsuit goes on to say that the same: ‘pitch sequence, melodic phase structure and rhythmic durations’ are used in both versions.
They also state that two producers behind the track contacted the composer on Twitter back in March 2015 two months before the track was released reading: ‘I sampled your music might make it 2 the weeknd next album. Huge fan of what u 4 the machinist movie.’
A rep for The Weeknd has been contacted for comment.