By JIM SMITH
Philadelphia Daily News

Philadelphia -- Songwriters Michael Cottrill and Larry Wnukowski say they had high hopes for a pop tune they wrote and copyrighted in 1999.

Its title was "What You See Is What You Get."
An agent of teen idol and vocalist Britney Spears told them in 1998 that he would submit it to her producers for possible use on an album.

It could be their "first big break," Cottrill figured.
Instead, Britney broke their hearts. No deal, they were told.

Now Cottrill and Wnukowski are taking Spears to court.
In a lawsuit that was to be filed Friday in federal court in Philadelphia, the two songwriters contend that Spears, her publishing company and her recording company pirated their tune by using two versions of it on her "Oops . . . I Did It Again" album, released about two years ago.

If true, the pirates didn't do much to conceal their alleged thievery.

The title of the song in question on Britney's album is virtually the same as the title of their copyrighted piece.

The only difference is using the letter "U" in place of the word You. On the album, the song's titled, "What U See Is What U Get."

A second song on the same album, called "Can't Make You Love Me," is "virtually identical to the music" in their copyrighted tune "with respect to the unique rhythm, cords, notes, arrangements of the notes and overall theme," the suit alleges.

Spears' handlers "merely made minor adjustments to some of the lyrics and music in the respective songs in an unsuccessful attempt to 'conceal' their pirating of" Cottrill's and Wnukowski's musical talents, the suit asserts.

No one answered the phones Thursday at Jive Records and Zomba Record Corp., the New York publisher and recording company, respectively, who, along with Spears, are listed as defendants in the lawsuit.

Britney's album went platinum, selling more than 35 million copies, and the two songwriters now want their share of the royalties.

The suit seeks "millions of dollars in ill-gotten profits."

"More than anything, we want the recognition that we wrote a good tune," said guitarist and keyboard player Cottrill. "We were hoping this was the hit for us, a really well-done tune."

"I feel we got robbed," Wnukowski said.

Cottrill said he and Wnukowski had met Spears several years earlier, before she hit it big in the music business, through William Kahn, a local music representative working for her.

Spears was about 14 years old at the time.

Kahn asked them to write the song for her, the suit asserts.

Kahn, who is not named a defendant in the suit, told them "that he now had direct access to Spears' record producers and again requested" them "to prepare a song and CD which he promised to submit" to Jive and Zomba "on behalf of Spears to see if they were interested in including" the song "on a future Spears' album."

I wonder if this is the kind of control over her career she was looking for?

IrishEcho said:

i'm sayin...

i say more power to them for going after getting what they deserve.

palease...leave her alone

I’m sure it true. Britney’s people are known thieves.
A similar thing happened to some guys who wrote a song for the BSB and also to a keyboard player that I talked to from NSYNC. THE SAME MANAGER WAS BEHIND ALL OF THIS! He is still Britney’s manager today.

"What You See Is What You Get."


that song prolly sucks to begin with... britney is cool peeps and shes fine...but alot of her tracks are sucky

Britney sings about as well as J Lo. It's amazing how many "singers" these days can't really sing.

NikkiDarling said:

ITS ABOUT THE SONGS' QUALITY NOT THE VOICES.

MADDY CAN'T SING MUCH EITHER, BUT THIS GIRL GOT DAMN GOOD SONGS,VIDEOS, AND CONCERTS.

JUST BECUASE ONE CAN'T SING AMAZINGLY, SHOULDN'T KEEP ONE FROM TRYING TO MAKE EXCELLENT MUSIC.

BESIDES BRITNEY GOT NOMINATED FOR A GRAMMY! SO WHO CARES ABOUT HER VOICE? AND HER VOICE UNLIKE OTHERS WHO CAN SING WITH RIGHT NOTES HAS AN AMAZINLGY COMMERICAL APPEAL.