Jesse Braham, who is suing Taylor Swift for 40 million, surely believes that he has a fair point. He used a phrase that he thinks was pretty unique in his track, “Haters Gone Hate” and Taylor Swift, a few years later, used the same expression. And of course, here’s Taylor’s megahit. The two songs have …

What’s the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement? It’s largely a matter of what’s immoral as opposed to what’s illegal. Let’s take plagiarism first. When we throw out the term “plagiarism,” we mean “taking and passing off another person’s words or ideas as your own, without attribution (crediting the source),” and it’s considered wrong, immoral, …

The three legged stool and why you need a musicologist before you write that complaint. I don’t know. But looking at the court decision that threw this out, I’d have to say the plaintiff, Timothy Arnett, didn’t engage a musicologist, and didn’t have his ducks in a row before filing his complaint. In it, he makes …

Back in July 2016, Musicologize published a pretty deep take down of the “Amazing” versus “Photograph” case, Amazing v. Photograph | Why Sheeran’s Photograph Infringes. and came to the conclusion that Ed Sheeran would be well advised to settle it. And it appears today that he has. Congratulations to “Amazing’s” songwriters, plaintiffs Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard …