Musicology

A cautionary tale for composers? Arty (DJ Artem Stoliarov) is suing Marshmello whose biggest hit, “Happier,” in Arty’s view infringes on a work of his called “I Lived (Arty Remix).) There’s a Musicologize article about the question of similarity between “Happier,” and “I Lived (Arty Remix)” which is a remix of One Republic’s “I Lived.” …

Recently, U.S. District Court Judge John Kronstadt ruled that Pharrell Williams did not commit perjury in testimony about “Blurred Lines” when it and his creative process were the focus of a copyright infringement lawsuit. I know I’ve opined a lot about the song of the summer in 2013, and the 2015 trial in which it …

You might ask, “Didn’t Minaj win this case months ago?? “Fair use” or something?” And we covered that, but it was only half the story. The interesting thing about the Tracy Chapman v Nicki Minaj case was never whether or not there was infringement. Chapman alone has the right to distribute a copy of “Baby …

Preemptive. Preventative. Responsible. “Responsible” might be the best word for it. You know this already: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It’s a proverb most often attributed to Ben Franklin that emphasizes the importance of taking proactive steps to avoid problems in the first place, rather than waiting until a problem …

He’ll say he won, but once and future reality TV personality, Donald Trump, will eventually lose or more likely settle his case against Eddy Grant. It’s different from the Neil Young thing. According to the complaint, the Trump Campaign placed “Electric Avenue,” (as in ‘We gonna rock down to…’) in an ad “deriding the Democratic …

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 …

At the end of a long Stairway To Heaven trial, we know Led Zeppelin was found not guilty of infringing on Taurus, but does that mean Stairway doesn’t add to the long list of songs that Zeppelin has been accused of plagiarising? We’ll explore how the Stairway trial went; why Stairway doesn’t infringe (arguably); and …

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 …