Prince Rebuffed in Italian Plagiarism Case

An Italian court has ruled that Prince's 1994 hit “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" was plagiarized from a song by two Italian writers. However, it could take several years for a definitive ruling in the case, which has already dragged on since the 1990s. According to a sentence handed down by the Court of Appeal in Rome, the song borrowed heavily from “Takin' Me to Paradise," written by Bruno Bergonzi and Michele Vicino. Under the ruling, Prince must stop distributing the song on Italian territory. He also faces having to pay the royalties he has so far accumulated to Bergonzi and Vicino and their publishers, but only if a final hearing confirms the Italian songwriting duo was plagiarized. “Our song was first released in 1983, at the height of the Italian dance boom and it appeared on assorted compilations that were distributed internationally," Bergonzi tells Billboard.com. “When we first heard Prince's song we immediately took action, but this case has been dragging on for 15 years and it isn't over yet, such is the slowness of the Italian legal system. We only decided to go public with our story now."