Has Justin Bieber ‘Stolen’ Artwork For ‘We Were Born For This’? Paramore Responds [Update]

Paramore fans believe Justin Bieber allegedly ‘stole’ fan artwork for his just released song “We Were Born For This.’ Lead singer Hayley Williams has now responded.

Update 04/29: Bieber has removed the song from his SoundCloud account.

Second Update 04/29: Bieber later re-uploaded the song without the artwork. In addition, Paramore have announced they are releasing a limited edition run of their single “Ain’t It Fun,” the cover art of which is remarkably similar to Bieber’s 2012 Believe album.

Original Story: Justin Bieber’s critically well received new song “We Were Born For This” was the focus of Paramore fans’ rage on Monday, after it became apparent the uncredited promotion artwork was a lift of fan art tributing the cover of the band’s 2007 Riot! record.

Accusations of alleged stealing flew across the Internet as did #BieberStoleFromParamore which topped Twitter’s worldwide trending topic as Paramore fans did battle with Beliebers trending #WeWereBornForThis.

And to think, it all started so well.

Hot on the heels of his Saturday dropping song “Hard 2 Face Reality,” Bieber tweeted out the SoundCloud link to his new track “We Were Born For This,” along with an image that was about to set off a mighty storm.

another free song??

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) April 28, 2014

But while positive reviews for Justin’s acoustic guitar slow jam piled up yesterday, Paramore fans’ fury was just getting started.

At first, they compared the font type in Bieber’s artwork and the band’s 2007 Riot! cover and found it to be similar.

The controversy heated up after keen eyes noticed the Paramore LP featured a song called “Born For This.”

(Photo: The back of Paramore’s 2007 Riot! album.)

And all hell broke loose when it was discovered that the artwork on Bieber’s “We Were Born For This” came from a Paramore fan’s homage to the band’s “Born For This.”

Under the Gun’s Jacob Tender tracked down the fan’s original image post to a 2011 Tumblr.

I take it back. There is controversy, but not bc of the font. The full art is stolen from a Paramore fan’s Tumblr. http://t.co/0aX6xCr2qv — Jacob Tender (@CurbsideAudio) April 28, 2014

Paramore lead singer, Hayley Williams, posted her anticipated – and cartooned – response at her Tumblr account late Monday, writing:

“my opinion on the whole JB/artwork thing is basically this. (via sombear),” William wrote.

(Images: Williams’ Tumblr.)

Williams also addressed the subject on Twitter with the following tweet:

Crushing on the dude @newfoundglory practice while everyone’s freakin out about JB on twitter pic.twitter.com/i243yr5V7c

— hayley from Paramore (@yelyahwilliams) April 28, 2014

We suspect the scale of the fuss is more about anti-Bieber sentiment than anything, since the Paramore fan also used colors and graphics from the band’s 2007 album cover.

In addition, Complex notes Tumblr images are not “strictly copyrighted” and Bieber’s “We Were Born For This” is a free song, so he isn’t making money off someone else’s creation.

It’s possible that the Canadian star had the artwork put together for him and just approved it at the end of the process. In that situation, it likely would not have occurred to Bieber to ask if the work was original or someone else’s.

If Justin did know it was someone’s else’s work, even if sourced from Tumblr, it should have been credited.

However, it’s shocking that Bieber’s team – who should be overseeing legalities – allowed an uncredited image to roll out on a major artist’s promotion, free or not. It’s clear Justin is not the priority he once was with Braun, and it shows.

Copyright is a basic check for the anyone in the music business and for Bieber to be left exposed like this is pretty outrageous.

As a result, the furor overshadowed the 20-year-old’s release of the rather terrific “We Were Born For This.”

(Photo: Former promo image for “We Were Born For This.”)