Musicology

Nicki Minaj today was hailed in numerous entertainment news reports as having scored a great victory yesterday not only for herself but for artists the world over. No. And I’ll explain. First, a super-quick background summary: Minaj created a track, “Sorry,” that interpolated Tracy Chapman’s “Baby Can I Hold You.” Minaj then asked Chapman for …

The Yeasayer lawsuit against Lamar and The Weeknd went away. Rightly. For now. But another copyright infringement lawsuit is in the works for Kendrick Lamar this week. Terrance Hayes is suing because he believes “Loyalty,” the 2017 Lamar hit that features Rihanna infringes upon Hayes’s 2011 track, also entitled, “Loyalty.” It’s unusual that I’m unable …

One of the most famous songs in rock n roll history is potentially headed to the Supreme Court. And Musicologize has followed the case from the very beginning, so just a tiny bit of “how we got here,” before we talk about what comes next: In the original trial that questioned whether Led Zeppelin lifted …

(Update: Weeknd was granted summary judgment. See note at bottom of this month old post.) For The Weeknd, one much-publicized lawsuit went away, but another comes back around to take its place. The band, “Yeasayer” had claimed The Weeknd’s “Pray For Me” (a collaboration with Kendrick Lamar that appeared in the Black Panther soundtrack) sampled …

As you may have read already there’s a new case against Thinking Out Loud, claiming (as does at least two other cases) that it infringes upon “Let’s Get It On.” This time there’s additional defendants and a new registration of the 1973 recording to go along with the sheet music that was originally registered. And …

There are now no fewer than three lawsuits arguing that Ed Sheeran’s super mega hit “Thinking Out Loud” infringes upon Marvin Gaye and Ed Townsend’s “Let’s Get It On;” two of them from the same plaintiff. SAS (Structured Asset Sales), which acquired partial rights to “Let’s Get It On” from one of Mr. Townsend’s successors, …

A lawsuit has been filed against Travis Scott claiming his hit “Highest In the Room” infringes on a track called “Cartier” by songwriters Olivier Bassil, Benjamin Lasnier, and Lukas Benjamin Leth. The three plaintiffs reportedly shopped “Cartier” around and were in touch with Scott’s people. There’s plenty of backstories told in the complaint, but that’s …

Let’s not be too sure that “Music Copyright Infringement Is Beginning To Make Sense Again.” According to Bloomberg Law, Nickelback just got sued because their hit “Rockstar,” according to a musician named Kirk Johnston, sounds too much like his own “Rock Star” track, which as you might’ve guessed is similar to Nickelback’s at least in …

It’s not so much that anyone even knew, much less cared, that there was a copyright infringement case involving “You Raise Me Up,” by Josh Groban and Westlife. It’s more that now that the case has been dismissed it joins recent judgments on famous infringement cases around “Stairway To Heaven” and “Dark Horse” to collectively …

Protection for a combination of unprotected elements. Musically, the “Led Zeppelin Stairway v Spirit Taurus” trial was at best an abstraction. Legally though? — it’s awesome and informs the starting point from which to look at the second half of the Dark Horse ruling’s consideration of “protection of a combination of unprotected elements.” The Dark …