A forensic musicologist applies musical expertise to illuminate the relevant truths in matters of civil law and there are four or five common situations in which they get a call. 1. Someone is suing you for copyright infringement. An accusation has been made that you copied another’s work, and although you’re sure their mistaken, you …

Marshmello got summary judgment, and here’s why I’m surprised. Arty, a fairly successful DJ and remixer, sued Marshmello whose biggest hit “Happier,” contains an instrumental hook that sounds a ton like a hook from Arty’s remix of a New Republic song, “I Lived.” Musicologize has articles about the similarity, but for now, it appears irrelevant. …

One of the stupidest cases to ever come down the pike, Taylor Swift and Evermore Theme Park have dropped their respective lawsuits against one another. Why am I even writing about a lawsuit that involves no forensic musicology whatsoever and is stupid besides? I’m not sure how to rationalize it actually. But I am sure …

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 …