Music copyright continues to have the problem of asymmetric risk borne by defendants against copyright infringement claims that I’d politely characterize as far-fetched, and therefore to some extent incentivizes them, both of which fly in the face of copyright’s purpose; to promote creativity so the world can enjoy its fruits. This case is just the …

No good deed goes unpunished, Beyoncé! Overall, this looks like one of the dumbest lawsuits of all time. AND YET, it’s got a few interesting twists and turns that make it worth a few lines here. Beyonce’s troubles stem from Break My Soul’s sample from New Orleans artist Big Freedia. No good deed goes unpunished. …

A reader asked an interesting question, which was: “Since the plaintiff, Structured Asset Sales, doesn’t own the “Let’s Get It On” recording, how can they use it to register the musical elements of “Let’s Get It On,” and why would they be able to sue for the recording’s elements in addition to the ones on …

The new Chevrolet Silverado commercial sounds just like The Monkees “Pleasant Valley Sunday!” How can that be legal?? If you get two inquiries like that, there must be a lot of people wondering, “How is Chevy getting away with copying “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and using it to sell a truck?” Isn’t this infringement? Well, no. …

About a year ago, a jury found that Ed Sheeran had not copied Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” when he wrote “Thinking Out Loud.” And while that trial, in which the plaintiff was the estate of Ed Townsend, received a lot of media attention, there was another with a different plaintiff and stakeholder in …

On April 4, 2024, Tuff City Records sued Universal Music Group over an alleged infringement that dates back to 1992, when Mary J. Blige, just twenty-one years old, released her first top-ten hit, “Real Love.” The complaint, filed in New York, claims “Real Love” infringes on a well-sampled record from 1973, the Honey Drippers (not …

In broadcast and advertising especially, music producers are frequently asked to write music that mimics in some fashion an existing and perhaps unaffordable piece of music. As I have opined before, soundalikes can be an innocent endeavor; the composer is generally asked to get “close but not too close,” where “too close” is colloquially equivalent …

“Mr. Musicologist, you’ve got to be kidding,” you say. Yeah, I reckon I must. (Chill out, BeyHiv!) So why is TikTok obsessed with the similarities between Beyonce’s new song and Franklin’s Theme Song? Franklin, the turtle. “Hey, it’s Franklin.” Yep, that one. First, for anyone who’s been under a rock, the first couple of singles …

Anyone can hear that it’s wrong. But you might be surprised at why and how it’s wrong. Everyone hates these commercials, but nobody can ignore them, so props to the creators of the Burger King jingle; the “earworm that’s taken over America.” Ask almost anyone why it’s so “bad” and they’ll say, “It’s because the …

What is a copyright musicologist? The phone rang this morning, and the conversation began: “Hello, Mr. McBrearty, I’m looking for a copyright musicologist. Is that what you do?” I’d never heard the phrase “copyright musicologist” before, but a copyright musicologist is what they were looking for, and most musicologists are not “copyright musicologists” at all. …