Usher accused of stealing songwriter's 1990s tune

Usher has become the latest star to be dragged into a plagiarism drama following song-stealing allegations from a little-known songwriter.

Ernest Lee Straughter claims the hitmaker's chart-topping hit Burn is more than a little similar to his track The Reasons Why and he has filed suit against Usher, his co-writers and producer Jermaine Dupri, and a California federal judge has accepted a musicologist's report that noted substantial similarity between the two songs,

Usher's lawyers are pleading with the judge to re-examine the case, according to Billboard.com.

Straughter's tune appeared on an album by R&B group Reel Tight under the name No More Pain in 1998.