Songwriters say Spears stole their tune

? 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, Spears broke their hearts. No deal, they were told.

Now Cottrill and Wnukowski are taking Spears to court.

In a lawsuit 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 platinum “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 Spears’ 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, 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 yesterday at JIVE Records and Zomba Record Corp., the New York publisher and recording company, respectively, who, along with young Spears, are to be named defendants in the lawsuit.

Spears’ album went platinum, selling more than 35 million copies, and the two local songwriters now want their share of the royalties.

The suit, to be prosecuted by Philadelphia lawyers George Bochetto and Gavin P. Lentz, 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, who has lived all his life in South Philadelphia.

“We were hoping this was ‘the’ hit for us, a really well-done tune,” said Cottrill.

Cottrill said he was “devastated” when he heard the songs.

“We thought we were going to get a fair deal off these people.

“We had been close with other things, but the timing wasn’t right. This was a really good chance, direct access to a really big star.”

Cottrill said he and Wnukowski, a singer, 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.

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

Kahn, who is not named 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.”

“It’s not every day you write a good tune and get it exposed,” Cottrill added, a song “that might send you over the top.”

His partner put it this way:

“I feel we got robbed,” said Wnukowski.