<story><title>Appeals Court Says It&apos;s Okay to Copyright an Entire Style of Music</title><url>https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180321/11202439470/appeals-court-says-okay-to-copyright-entire-style-music.shtml</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tmuir</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think its controversial in the slightest to say that they are highly similar songs.&lt;p&gt;They have a similar beat.&lt;p&gt;They both have a similar style of walking bass line.&lt;p&gt;They both feature a male falsetto singer as the main melodic instrument.&lt;p&gt;The both feature a decent amount of random banter in the background.&lt;p&gt;The both feature the use of the chorus effect.  This means that it is very fluidly changing back and forth between sounding like a single voice singing a single note, and multiple recordings of the same voice singing the same note, but with some minute and random time shifting, which is what actually gives the effect.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know much of either of the two artists catalogs to any comprehensive degree.  But if a single artist had two songs with all of the same qualities listed above, there would be no disagreement at all that those qualities defined that particular artist&amp;#x27;s style.&lt;p&gt;Thus, if we can argue that &amp;quot;style&amp;quot; is a consistent accumulation of specific musical qualities, at the expense of incorporating others, these two songs are by definition of a similar style.</text></item><item><author>lisper</author><text>Wow.  Those two songs are not even remotely similar.&lt;p&gt;If this ruling stands no one will ever be able write another reggae song, nor even a new piece of classical music, without running afoul of someone&amp;#x27;s copyright.</text></item><item><author>jobigoud</author><text>For those not familiar with the case, the two songs referred to are the following:&lt;p&gt;Marvin Gaye - Got to give it up: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=fp7Q1OAzITM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=fp7Q1OAzITM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines ft. T.I., Pharrell: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>TheOtherHobbes</author><text>None of those are copyrightable elements.&lt;p&gt;Nor is the concept of &amp;quot;style&amp;quot;, because it has no recognisable legal or musical definition.&lt;p&gt;Musical copyright exists primarily in lyrics and melody for the writing (&amp;quot;publishing&amp;quot;) component, and in a specific reproducible recording for the mechanical distribution component (which can include the entire song, or a small sample).&lt;p&gt;Elements that cannot usually be copyrighted include: vocal stylings, bass lines, production and engineering tricks, chord sequences, rhythms, arrangement structures.&lt;p&gt;Sometimes, very rarely, any of these can be considered distinctive enough to be the primary element that defines a song. But that&amp;#x27;s a very tough case to argue, and most suits that try it fail spectacularly.&lt;p&gt;In fact a lot of pop is made by &lt;i&gt;knowingly and deliberately copying elements from various source songs and mixing them up to create a new song.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;So there is absolutely no practical way this ruling can stand. If it did, it would open the industry to a wave of law suits that would reduce it to chaos.</text></comment>
<story><title>Appeals Court Says It&apos;s Okay to Copyright an Entire Style of Music</title><url>https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180321/11202439470/appeals-court-says-okay-to-copyright-entire-style-music.shtml</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tmuir</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think its controversial in the slightest to say that they are highly similar songs.&lt;p&gt;They have a similar beat.&lt;p&gt;They both have a similar style of walking bass line.&lt;p&gt;They both feature a male falsetto singer as the main melodic instrument.&lt;p&gt;The both feature a decent amount of random banter in the background.&lt;p&gt;The both feature the use of the chorus effect.  This means that it is very fluidly changing back and forth between sounding like a single voice singing a single note, and multiple recordings of the same voice singing the same note, but with some minute and random time shifting, which is what actually gives the effect.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know much of either of the two artists catalogs to any comprehensive degree.  But if a single artist had two songs with all of the same qualities listed above, there would be no disagreement at all that those qualities defined that particular artist&amp;#x27;s style.&lt;p&gt;Thus, if we can argue that &amp;quot;style&amp;quot; is a consistent accumulation of specific musical qualities, at the expense of incorporating others, these two songs are by definition of a similar style.</text></item><item><author>lisper</author><text>Wow.  Those two songs are not even remotely similar.&lt;p&gt;If this ruling stands no one will ever be able write another reggae song, nor even a new piece of classical music, without running afoul of someone&amp;#x27;s copyright.</text></item><item><author>jobigoud</author><text>For those not familiar with the case, the two songs referred to are the following:&lt;p&gt;Marvin Gaye - Got to give it up: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=fp7Q1OAzITM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=fp7Q1OAzITM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines ft. T.I., Pharrell: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Mithaldu</author><text>Copyright limits the right to copy a &lt;i&gt;specific&lt;/i&gt; expression. Not a &lt;i&gt;similar&lt;/i&gt; one, it has to be a &lt;i&gt;specific&lt;/i&gt; one.&lt;p&gt;The very fact that the lyrics are completely different should absolutely disqualify this from even remotely touching copyright:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;genius.com&amp;#x2F;Marvin-gaye-got-to-give-it-up-lyrics&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;genius.com&amp;#x2F;Marvin-gaye-got-to-give-it-up-lyrics&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;genius.com&amp;#x2F;Robin-thicke-blurred-lines-lyrics&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;genius.com&amp;#x2F;Robin-thicke-blurred-lines-lyrics&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>