American figure skaters sued over detail in Winter Olympics routine

American figure skaters Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier have been hit with a shock lawsuit in relation to their routine at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The ugly controversy surrounds their use of music group Heavy Young Heathens' version of the song 'House of the Rising Sun', which the artists claim was unsanctioned and 'violated' copyright laws.

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Based on a traditional folk song, the group's version “is a signature song of theirs throughout the world,” according to the lawsuit obtained by Reuters.

The version was also used in 2016's remake of 'The Magnificent Seven' film, as well as commercials for Ford.

The Heavy Young Heathens, which is made up of Robert and Aron Marderosian, claim in the lawsuit that they were not contacted about the use of the song at the Winter Olympics.

The artists are suing the figure skating duo along with NBC and US Figure Skating.

Artists say they were not contacted about use of song

The brothers claimed in the lawsuit that they weren’t contacted ahead of time by anybody - including NBC, USA Network and Peacock - about using the song for their short program.

"These violations cause great harm to the value of (the Marderosians) command for such a well known piece of their recording catalog, and insults the integrity of their professional reputation," the lawsuit states.

"While Knierim/Frazier, USFS, NBC, USA, Peacock are all profiting from the revenue the 2022 Winter Olympics generate, (the Marderosians) have been and continue to be deprived of what their creation 'House of the Rising Sun' earns them per license."

Their lawyer and father Mick Marderosian, said that the agent for Knierim and Frazier “basically refused to listen to our issue,” according to Reuters.

The Heavy Young Heathens are seeking damages as well as seeing the figure skating pair prohibited from using their song in future performances.

Knierim and Frazier finished with a score of 74.23 in their short program, just one tenth of a point ahead of Team USA pair Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc.

China’s Wenjing Su and Cong Han set a short-program record with their score of 84.41.

with Yahoo Sports US

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