The Police's 1983 mega-hit "Every Breath You Take" is one of the biggest pop hits of all time, and its sole credited songwriter is Sting, the band's singer and bassist. This has long been a point of contention between Sting and his former Police bandmates, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland. Summers came up with the arpeggiated "Every Breath You Take" riff, one of the elements that Puff Daddy sampled on his enormously successful 1997 single "I'll Be Missing You." Now, after 42 years, Summers and Copeland are suing Sting for millions in lost royalties. Sting still has yet to respond to that lawsuit directly, but his lawyer claims that Summers and Copeland have, if anything, been "substantially overpaid."
According to a New York Times story about the lawsuit, Sting came up with an agreement with his two bandmates when they started the Police in 1977. Sting reportedly promised Summers and Copeland 15% of "some royalties" from the songs that Sting wrote by himself, and that effort was meant to "keep things sweet" within the band. Sting is the sole credited writer of most of the Police's biggest hits, and Summers and Copeland argue that Sting now owes them "arranger's fees" from the "digital exploitation" of the Police's music.
Sting's lawyers contend that Sting and his bandmates signed an agreement over arranger's fees in 2016, when the former bandmates came to a disagreement over use of the Police's songs in TV shows and movies. According to Sting's lawyers, the lawsuit is an "illegitimate attempt" to reinterpret the agreement and that Sting actually "substantially overpaid" Summers and Copeland, based on the terms of that 2016 agreement. You can read the Times report here.
