Avril Lavigne Exonerated From Plagiarism

Los Angeles, CA (CNS) - Avril Lavigne has just been exonerated by two songwriters who had accused her of plagiarism. The Sk8er Boi singer escaped trial as songwriters Tony Dunbar and James Gangwer reached a confidential settlement with the singer regarding her song "Girlfriend."

Dunbar and Gangwer sued 23-year-old Lavigne and her writing partner, Luke Gottwald, claiming "Girlfriend" was ripped off from the 1979 song they wrote, "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," which was sung by new wave group Rubinoos.

The two are now retracting their statements saying, "We are satisfied that any similarities between the two songs resulted from Avril and Luke's use of certain common and widely used lyrics. We therefore completely exonerate Avril and Luke from any wrongdoing of any kind in connection with the claims made by us in our lawsuit."

Lavigne had previously called the allegation false as saying in her website: "I had never heard this song in my life and their claim is based on 5 words," she had written in her blog.