There is no such thing as a completely original composition - as we're increasingly finding out.
In light of all the successful copyright cases, one can always wonder if the spike in copyright lawsuits might be a threat to new music. In the Marvin Gaye family’s lawsuits against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, they were ordered to pay £4.84 million after the star's children successfully won a lawsuit claiming Pharrell and Robin Thicke plagiarised their father's hit Got To Give It Up. Ed Sheeran also settled a $20 million court case, in which he was accused of copying “note for note” from a track called Amazing released by former X Factor winner Matt Cardle in 2012.The songwriters originally claimed the chorus of his song Photograph and Amazing shared 39 identical notes, with similarities "instantly recognisable to the ordinary observer".
Since the Marvin Gaye family’s successful claim against Robin Thicke, artists such as Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson, Madonna and Miley Cyrus are now involved in costly legal proceedings. Ryan Tedder slams the rise in copyright cases; he states in a BBC interview that “the odds of getting sued in this day and age are so high”. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48307374
Artists are now taking pre-emptive measures to avoid claims as it was in the case of Ed Sheeran sharing the royalties of Shape Of You with the writers behind TLC's No Scrubs (as commented on a previous article here: https://www.brabners.com/blogs/ip-&-it/lets-get-it-us-jury-decide-ed-sheerans-copyright-infringement) as well as Taylor Swift giving Right Said Fred credit on Look What You Made Me Do after noticing a similarity to their 1991 single I'm Too Sexy. Although Ryan Tedder has never had a lawsuit, he mentioned that he avoided one over his contribution to the Jonas Brothers' new single, Sucker which drew up comparison with Portugal. The Man's Feel It Still. He stated that "they had to spend thousands of dollars on musicologists just to verify the fact that they didn't reference the song at all”; subsequently losing $5,000 by hiring people to ensure that there was no case.
Music producer and songwriter Nile Rodgers pointed out that “there is no such thing as a completely original composition”. Singer-songwriter Gary Numan stated that "they all listen to stuff and get ideas from the things they listen to. And the trick of it is to turn those ideas into something new rather than just repeat them or copy them.” It can be argued that artists merely take inspiration from their favourite artist rather than copy the work. However, the industry is likely to remain extremely wary about copyright when it comes to releasing new music. That said, for there to be a successful lawsuit claim, artists have to show evidence that their music had been copied provided the music is fairly new otherwise artists of new music need not be of great concern.
If you have any queries or would like some further information on copyright protection, please contact a member of our Intellectual Property team.
