It was never about plagiarism, but it was about copyright infringement. And this case might’ve been interesting, but alas it never got there. And now it appears to be settled.
It was never interesting because it never ventured into the exploration of the concepts of “derivative work” versus other sorts of transformative works. And as a forensic musicologist, anything having to do with the music would’ve been more interesting. But while it was a high profile copyright case in 2016, musicology had little role in this one.
Evidently the actual arguments centered around whether or not Mandy Jiroux had permission to quote whole sections of Blind Melon’s 1993 hit song, “No Rain,” in Jiroux’s work, “Insane.” Blind Melon evidently remembers it being discussed, but remembers saying, “No.” And would you believe, Jiroux remembers it the other way!
And we will just have to guess.
