The facts
Mattie Music Group, doing business as Bleunig Music, filed a seven-page copyright complaint on Thursday (October 1) in federal court in Los Angeles, case number 2:26-cv-11383. It claims Olivia Dean’s song I’ve Seen It copies the melody of Just the Two of Us, the 1981 hit co-written by Withers with Ralph MacDonald and William Salter. The defendants are Capitol Records, Universal Music Group, Sony Publishing (US) LLC, and Kobalt Music Publishing America. Dean and her co-writers Bastian Langebaek and Max Wolfgang are not named; the complaint also lists 50 “Doe” defendants whose real names it will add once known.
The publisher says its representatives listened to I’ve Seen It several times and reached the “obvious and inescapable conclusion” that it copied the older song. It then hired musicologist Alexander Stewart, who concluded the two works share “substantial similarities in protectable musical expression, including repeated copying of the distinctively protectable melody”. The publisher sent written notice to the defendants on August 17, 2026, and says they kept distributing and licensing the song anyway. It calls the infringement “willful” and wants its losses plus the defendants’ profits, or statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work, plus a permanent ban on the song and an order authorizing the “seizure, impounding, or destruction” of infringing copies.
Just the Two of Us was released as a single in February 1981, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and won the Grammy for Best R&B Song. I’ve Seen It is the closing track on Dean’s album The Art of Loving, released by Capitol on September 26, 2025; Dean won the Grammy for Best New Artist in February 2026 and was among UMG’s top sellers in Q4 2025. Mattie Music Group is one of three publishers credited on Just the Two of Us, alongside Antisia Music and BMG Ruby Songs. Neither of the other two joined the case.
Our take
Here’s how this bullshit works. Some prick at Mattie Music Group sat in his office, listened to Olivia Dean’s song a few times, and had what he calls an “obvious and inescapable conclusion.” That conclusion, of course, was that his dusty-ass publishing catalog might finally be worth something again. So he did what any grifter would do: he paid a musicologist to write down the same fucking conclusion on fancy paper. The entire legal foundation of this case is a guy with a Spotify account and a hired gun who says yep, sounds like a melody. It’s a fucking joke wrapped in a lawsuit.
But the real punchline is the defendant list. This cowardly piece-of-shit publisher named Capitol, Universal, Sony, and Kobalt. It named 50 mysterious “Does” to scare the shit out of anyone who ever touched the song. But you know who they didn’t name? Olivia Dean. They didn’t name Bastian Langebaek or Max Wolfgang, the people who actually wrote the fucking song. Why? Because suing the artist is hard. Suing the corporations with the deepest pockets is easy. This isn’t about justice; it’s about finding the fattest wallets to shake. They want the money, but they’re too fucking scared to confront the human being who made the art.
Let’s be clear about what Mattie Music Group actually is: one of three names on the paperwork for “Just the Two of Us.” The other two publishers, Antisia Music and BMG Ruby Songs, looked at this same alleged theft and said, Nah, we’re good. They didn’t join the lawsuit. That’s the professional equivalent of watching your friend try to pick a fight with a bouncer and slowly backing away. Everyone else in the room knows this is a pathetic cash grab.
And what do these greedy bastards want? Not a reasonable licensing fee. Oh no. They want their losses plus all the profits, or up to $150,000 per work. They want a court order to permanently ban the song. They want the legal authority for the “seizure, impounding, or destruction” of copies. They want to burn the song at the stake like a fucking heretic. All because, after nearly a year of Dean’s album being a top seller, some dickhead finally noticed a melody and saw a lottery ticket.
Then there’s the timing, which proves this is a calculated shakedown. They sent a “written notice” in August 2026, then sat back and let the labels keep selling the song. Every stream after that letter is another line item on the damages claim. This isn’t protecting copyright; it’s a protection racket. It’s a legalized mugging where the weapon is a seven-page complaint and the accomplice is a musicologist for hire. Bill Withers wrote songs about leanin’ on each other. His publisher just wants to lean on a bank vault.
