''It's All About You'' is a four-song EP written and produced by singer,

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

, and Chicago

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

Rebecca F. Rebecca F.'s interest in the

meme A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that Mimesis, spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying c ...

— "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture" — led to the band name "Rebecca F. & The Memes." In a 2006 interview, she said: "A meme is a cultural gene. humans by consensus determine what cultural information is valuable enough to pass from one

generation A generation is all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It also is "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and b ...

to the next. The question is: What memes are we passing on in the modern world?" From 2000 to 2002 Rebecca F. was contracted to a development deal by R. Kelly for his vanity label Rockland Records during which time she recorded and produced her own songs.

Track listing

"Judas" plagiarism lawsuit

The song "Juda", released on this album, was written by Rebecca F. and copyrighted in 1999.

Lady Gaga and "Judas"

In August 2011, Rebecca F., born Rebecca Francescatti, filed a lawsuit in Illinois Northern District Court's Chicago Office known as ''Francescatti v. Germanotta et al.'' The complaint alleges: "

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her image reinventions and versatility across the entertainment industry, she is an influ ...

, her music labels, and one of the musicians who allegedly wrote 17 of Gaga's songs for her ' Born This Way' album are sued for

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...

, accused by

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

composer and performing artist Rebecca Francescatti of using her 1999 copyright-protected work "Juda" in Gaga's

Judas Judas Iscariot (; ; died AD) was, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane, in exchange for thirty pieces of ...

, purportedly via defendant Gaynor." Brian Joseph Gaynor, a member of

DJ White Shadow Paul Edward Blair (born September 20, 1978), known by his stage name DJ White Shadow, sometimes written as DJWS, is an American music producer, musician, songwriter and DJ. Based in Chicago, Illinois, he is best known as the producer for Lady Ga ...

, LLC, "collaborated with Lady Gaga in writing and producing 17 of 20 songs recorded" on "Born This Way." Gaynor was the recording engineer and mixer for Rebecca F.'s album "It's All About You," which included the song "Juda."

"Judas" and Jennifer Lopez's "Invading My Mind"

Francescatti's law team entered evidence in December 2012 that Gaga used an additional unlicensed sample in "Judas" and then incorporated it into " Invading My Mind". They claimed that

asked

Jennifer Lopez Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969), also known by her nickname J.Lo, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, dancer and businesswoman. Lopez is regarded as one of the most influential entertainers of her time, credited with breaking ...

for a credit on "Invading My Mind" to "cover her tracks", suggesting that she did not even contribute to the song. Francescatti's team claimed to "uncover text messages between Gaga and RedOne proving that she had stolen the sample loop used in both 'Judas' and 'Invading My Mind'".

Summary judgment

In June 2014, Federal Judge Marvin Aspen (b. 1934) dismissed the lawsuit without trial through an award of

Summary Judgment In law, a summary judgment, also referred to as judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition, is a Judgment (law), judgment entered by a court for one party and against another party summarily, i.e., without a full Trial (law), trial. Summa ...

for lacking "ordinary observer" qualities: Judge Aspen ruled for the Plaintiff (Francescatti) that a reasonable juror could find that Germanotta had access to Francescatti's work. The judge described this "channel of communication" between the parties as a "nexus". He concludes that bassist Brian Gaynor worked on Francescatti's song before collaborating with Lady Gaga: Therefore Judge Aspen denied Germanotta et al.'s argument that there was no access between the parties. Judge Aspen concluded that certain elements of the Plaintiff's song that were alleged and argued to be points of infringement actually constituted evidence that Lady Gaga independently created Judas. Judge Aspen wrote:

Responses to dismissal

One of the attorneys for Lady Gaga made the following statement: In a statement following Judge Aspen's ruling, Francescatti said her plight had been a "David versus Goliath struggle". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' music writer Daniel Kreps observed:

Lady Gaga sues Rebecca F. for $1.4 million

In September 2014 Lady Gaga filed court documents to collect $1.4 million from Rebecca Francescatti (Rebecca F.). The singer "claim back close to $1.4 million that she paid her lawyers over the course of the three year case" and "has requested Rebecca foot the staggering bill." Rebecca F.'s response to the lawsuit, "Why You Should Care that Lady Gaga is Suing Me for $1.4 Million Dollars" elucidates her copyright infringement allegations for the first time. In November 2014 she was forced to remove the essay from her website.

Harassment

Harassment of the "Juda" songwriter has been ongoing since August 2011. In response, Rebecca F. wrote and posted the YouTube single "I Don't Believe In Monsters" featuring snapshots of

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, Suffering, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggression, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. On ...

comments, including

death threats A death threat is a threat, often made Anonymity, anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or group of people. These threats are often designed to intimidate victims in order to Psychological manipulation, manipulat ...

. In an interview for her four-song self-released EP "It's All About You," F. said: {{quote, "Looking around, I sometimes feel like our current culture is built on exclusion. One group of people is "cool" or "hot" precisely because it does not include another group of people. Needless to say, I think that since we're all humans, we belong in the same group. I like the idea of

inclusion Inclusion or Include may refer to: Sociology * Social inclusion, action taken to support people of different backgrounds sharing life together. ** Inclusion (disability rights), promotion of people with disabilities sharing various aspects of lif ...

, so maybe that's what you're hearing in the lyrics.

References

External links

Justia Dockets & Filing entry on the 2011 lawsuit

iTunes listing
2006 EPs Albums involved in plagiarism controversies Harassment and bullying Works about Internet memes