JUST IN: Legend of progressive rock arrested for violating copyright.

Lead singer Jon Davison and the British band Howe are accused of plotting to “steal” songs from fellow musician Riz Story.

According to a recent lawsuit, members of the renowned progressive rock group Yes allegedly based “Dare to Know,” the second single from their 2021 album The Quest, on a work that was stolen from fellow prog-rock artist Riz Story.

The main vocalist of Yes since 2012, Jon Davison, is accused of conspiring with guitarist Steve Howe to steal protected parts of the song “Reunion,” according to a copyright infringement lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Wednesday and acquired by Rolling Stone. Although “Reunion” isn’t a stand-alone song, it was used in the 2014 independent film A Winter Rose, Story, which starred Edward Furlong, Paul Sorvino, Billy Zane, and Taryn Manning.

A Yes spokesperson strongly refuted Story’s assertion in a statement. This is crazy, slanderous, and nasty nonsense. The spokesperson assured Rolling Stone that it will be fiercely protected.

In his case, Story—whose real name is Rudolph Zahler—claims that Davison was aware of his work when they first connected in 1990 via the late drummer Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters. Zahler claims that while he was in his early twenties, he, Davison, and Hawkins performed together in the first incarnation of his prog-rock band Anyone.

Zahler claims that in 2013, Davison contacted him to co-write songs for Yes after he assisted him in auditioning for his part in the film. According to him, Davison even consented to offer Zahler a producer position on a Yes record, but the group finally decided to go a another route. According to the lawsuit, Zahler received particular praise from Davison for the music he composed for A Winter Rose, notably “Reunion.”

The complaint claims that while Yes was making The Quest, Davison turned to Zahler once more, but this time he reportedly did it covertly. “Instead of obtaining Mr. Zahler’s consent, Mr. Davison chose to simply’steal’ his song ‘Reunion’ for the album,” according to the latest lawsuit filed in the Central District of California by attorney Larry J. Caldwell. The guys “agreed to add lyrics to the music, apply the name ‘Dare to Know’ to the song, and award sole composition credit to Mr. Howe,” according to Zahler, after Davison brought “Reunion” to Howe. Zahler claims that by leaving Davison out of the songwriting credits, he and Howe “conspired” to hide their violation.

In a statement to Rolling Stone, Caldwell stated, “It is with a heavy heart that Riz Story is forced to sue Stephen Howe, one of his childhood music idols, and Jon Davison, his lifelong friend. However, they gave him no other option. In these trying times, Mr. Story believes that justice will be served by the court system.

According to the complaint, Zahler employed a professional musicologist who concluded that “Reunion” and “Dare to Know” have “a pitch similarity percentage of 96%, which is extremely high.” According to the lawsuit, the expert, Dr. Ethan Lustig, stated that the melodies of the two songs had nearly identical melodic and rhythmic patterns. He went on to say, “There is a very strong similarity that would be very unlikely to occur by chance alone because both songs have such strong melodic and rhythmic similarities in addition to using the same distinctive harmonic sequence.” According to the complaint, Lustig concluded that “Dare To Know” is “directly based” on “Reunion.”