Musicology

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 …

I’ll keep this one brief. Because there’s nothing to get into here. And I’m gonna predict that Miley Cyrus, Mike WiLL Made-It and Wiz Khalifa will swat this one aside in short order. Still, it’s interesting. It’s interesting that someone filed the complaint. This is the sort of thing where Musicologize might employ a Politifct …

Katy Perry’s Dark Horse case appears to be going to court. In 2015 a Christian rap artist named Flame claimed Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” infringed upon his track “Joyful Noise.” A few years later, the case hasn’t settled and according to latest reports is indeed going to trial. Anything to see here? Well, the judge himself just called this “…an extremely close …

Sheehan sued, again. Gaye, again. $100 million this time. But of course, we reach the same conclusion as last time. According to TMZ Ed Sheeran is getting sued, yes again, for ripping off Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” This time the plaintiff is “Structured Asset Sales” which owns a third of the rights to …

I doubt it. Today I read an interesting article by Christopher J. Buccafusco, Professor of Law at Yeshiva University, entitled The Blurred Lines of Copyright Law Are Limiting Musical Creativity. Buccafusco argues or perhaps thinks manifest that the “innovation space” of music is dwindling naturally because, first, the field is increasingly full of the protected intellectual …

Poor guy needs a musicologize scoreboard all to himself. And there’s no way he’s excited to see Richard Busch coming at him again. Nobody would be, dude’s a beast. And perhaps Ed’s preternaturally easy going demeanor has reached its limit, because Sheeran has countersued and wants this thing tossed out. Good luck. There’s no way …

And by “man” I mean any “news” service that bothers to tell this tale and wastes your time and mine. Oh, it could’ve been reasonable. It isn’t, but it coulda been. Coulda been that some guy in Texas wrote a tune. And then someone somehow heard Texas guy’s track and then, perhaps quite by accident, …