Musicology

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 …

The accusation is always that copyright infringement was willful. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone sued for accidentally infringing. Civil litigation, if you don’t know, begins with a plaintiff filing a complaint explaining how they’ve been harmed and why the court should hold the defendant responsible. Then they request some sort of relief — …

Let’s not be too sure that “Music Copyright Infringement Is Beginning To Make Sense Again,” as this Forbes article says. 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 …

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 …

Ed Sheeran is waiting for his day in court, facing Ed Townsend’s charge that megahit “Thinking Out Loud” infringes on “Let’s Get It On,” another megahit by Marvin Gaye. (Townsend co-wrote it.) And while the case doesn’t get to court for months, Sheeran’s case probably got a boost from the recent Dark Horse ruling and …

Wound up in an okay place, but the means are highly suspect. So much press lauding these decisions. They should read them with a different eye, Dark Horse especially. “Dark Horse,” “Stairway,” and “Blurred Lines” collectively had composers paralyzed with fear, right? Plenty of other big songs found their way to litigation in the past …

Pleased? Yes, I am. Satisfied? Not till I read the whole decision. Which so far looks dicey. Check back. Meantime, there are other articles on this site that look at Dark Horse. This first most recent one — Copyright infringement and the Climate Of Fear — covers the idea that a few bad verdicts shouldn’t …

As musicology case law goes, this ain’t much of anything. But it’s The Big Bang Theory, so we can give it a few minutes, can’t we? Like Friends had “Smelly Cat,” so The Big Bang Theory has “Soft Kitty,” a little ditty that gets sung periodically to soothe a character who’s feeling sick. Big Bang’s …