"You gotta be bad, you gotta be bold, you gotta be wiser."

Des'ree

So sang Des'ree in the popular 1994 song "You Gotta Be," and according to a lawsuit the singer filed this week, Beyonce's "gotta be" paying up.

In a complaint filed this week in the US District Court in New York, the Royalty Network, the company that handles the administration of Des'ree's music royalties, has accused Beyonce and her label, Columbia Records, of copyright infringement for interpolating--without permission--Des'Ree song "I'm Kissing You" on Beyonce's song "Still in Love (Kissing You)."

The complaint claims that Beyonce's reps approached Des'ree's reps to license the song, but were not happy with the terms of the license. Those terms precluded the song from being used outside the US or in a music video and stipulated that the name of the original song not be altered.

Beyonce's people did not agree to those terms, and the deal was thus revoked. On March 27, the Royalty Network sent a cease-and-desist letter to Columbia, but the song was included on the rerelease as B'Day - Deluxe Edition, which hit stores April 3.

Des'ree's song "I'm Kissing You" appeared on the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

The complaint seeks unspecified damages "in excess of $150,000," as well as an injunction on the distribution of the song and the video for it.

Beyonce or Columbia has not yet commented on the filing.