Music Industry - Legal Case Research

 

There was a specific case earlier this year in which an American Christian artist named “Flame” claimed singer “Katy Perry” copied his song “Joyful Noise” to create her song “Dark Horse”, the line of reasoning was that she and the producers/songwriters involved in making the song stole a specific melodic motif from “Joyful Noise” which in turn violated flame’s rights as the owner of the melody, Flame and the other plaintiffs involved in the suit claim that, not only did Perry appropriate elements of the song, but that the video tarnished their intellectual property by using imagery associated with black magic, witchcraft, and paganism; ideologies that Flame strongly opposes.

 

This case could have an impact on my work as a musician because the fact that someone could base a whole legal case on a melody that one may have not been influenced by the song they’re citing plagiarism about is outrageous, there is only so many ways you can put notes together inherently in music theory and basing a legal case on a certain order and sequence of those notes which could have been copied, “purposefully created” or “subconsciously created” by you is not, in my opinion, good enough evidence or in all honesty, legally enforceable in the first place.

 

As a musician, there is no real way to get around this except for a specific piece of work by “Programmer, lawyer, and musician Damien Riehl and programmer and musician Noah Rubin” in which they have copyrighted “Every Possible Melody” and released them into the public domain. “Riehl and Rubin have released their billions of melodies under a Creative Commons Zero license, meaning they have “no rights reserved” and are similar to public domain”. This is great for musicians all around the globe, as a case like the Flame/Katy Perry “dark horse” lawsuit is less likely to happen again.