Musicology

Headlines broke out earlier this week about Stairway To Heaven going back to court. Those headlines have people confused. So, here’s what’s really happening and what’s likely, according to me, to happen next.  For those of you in a hurry I’ll make these few main predictions: There will not be a whole new trial. Zeppelin’s …

Before we answer that, these guys have real names. Artem Stoliarov goes by Arty and he’s suing Christopher Comstock. He’s Marshmello. I probably won’t use their real names again.  The complaint, filed last week, says Marshmello’s monster hit song, “Happier,” infringes upon Arty’s remix of “I Lived,” by One Republic. So, why isn’t One Republic …

Well, it’s not completely ridiculous. “I Don’t Care” is Justin Beiber and Ed Sheeran’s brand new single (as I type this, it came out yesterday.) I’d be hard pressed to think of another combo more certain to reach #1 as fast as Billboard can refresh? So everyone has heard the hell out of this track …

The inverse ratio rule has been part of copyright law for a long time, but sooner or later hopefully we can agree that it never really made a lot of sense and we should just let it go. And to illustrate we’ll take the two most interesting copyright infringement cases in recent memory; one that …

First, what’s a soundalike? Imagine for a minute you’re in advertising, working on a campaign; a commercial maybe. You’ve got the messaging and visuals, and you’re on to “what about music?” And then a song occurs to you, a familiar one that everybody knows and relates to in a manner that will support your vision …

No. Jumping right on this one, because it’s straightforward. This morning we have headlines that Juice WRLD is getting sued, again. Sting pretty much owns “Lucid Dreams” now, rightly. And this new suit comes because a young artist from Colorado, Jerome Willisch, who works under the name Fly Jxy, is under the impression that “Lean …

Any day is a good day to sue Ed Sheeran. [ UPDATE: (Oct ’22) This article was mostly written in 2019. I’ve written others with more tedious granularity since, but this is still a decent summary.] Sheeran has been sued twice in this, the summer of 2019; the other, I’ll go out of my way …

Timberlake and Will.i.am are being sued for stealing “Damn Girl.” And I’d say they’ve got a big problem. Justin Timberlake and Will.i.am (William Adams) are facing an infringement suit over “Damn Girl,” their collaboration from Timberlake’s very successful “Futuresex/Lovesounds” record. That record is a decade old. And this case was filed in 2016. But after …

Interpolation, sampling, and substantial similarity: Any of them might amount to infringement but they have specific meanings and when they are used incorrectly or interchangeably, it’s confusing and obfuscating. So let’s get clear on what we mean. First, interpolation: Merriam-Webster.com says one definition of interpolation is “the introduction or insertion of something spurious or foreign.” …

Led Zeppelin vs Spirit/Skidmore v.1: discarded by the Ninth Circuit. And it’s a mixed bag at best. It’s been about a year since a jury decided that Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven did not infringe upon the copyright of Taurus, by the band Spirit. That jury ruled that although Led Zeppelin had access to Taurus the two …