An IP Conundrum - How Many Different Country Songs Are There?

Students are often perplexed by the application of copyright in certain areas of the music industry.  For instance, at its core "the blues" shares a persistent three guitar chord progression and similarity of melody throughout the entire genre of music. There is a wealth of internet resources of material for songs that sound like other songs.  Sometimes lawsuits are brought and sometimes they are not. I am not an expert in this area of the law, but it seems to me that the distinction rests on the uniqueness of  the allegedly copied musical pattern. 

Below is a video comparing 6 Country Music songs. As it cleverly and indisputably establishes, they are the same song even to the point of being performed in the same musical key. Despite the song coming from different performers, different studios, different producers, etc. - the song are all one song. The melody is the same, the musical progression is identical, the songs are musically indistinguishable. I expect that the reason why we don't see lawsuits in this genre of music is because there is no unique quality to the music.  If you claim a copyright infringement by one artist, there are thousands of others who have the same claim against you. What are your thoughts?

Artists' Works Copied by Big Business?

A number of artists are claiming that Cody, Foster and Co., a big wholesaler of ornaments and decorations, are ripping off their work. The report from Yahoo Shine seems to present pretty compelling evidence.  As does a flickr site compiled by an anonymous whistleblower. Read artist Lisa Congdon's blog post, "My Art Was Stolen For Profit and How You Can Help," about her trials and tribulations over this issue.  Read more, here.

I am speculating that the prospect of protracted litigation against a major, well financed corporation is daunting to a small independent artist. This is one of those situations where the law ignores the disparity of access to resources and presumes everyone has equal ability to enforce his or her rights. We should get our legal heads out of the sand and devise a system that can actually protect and encourage creativity. Otherwise, bullies always win.

Source of image below: http://lisacongdon.com/blog/2013/10/my-art-was-stolen-for-profit-and-how-you-can-help/

File Sharing Judgment of $675,000 Upheld

A Federal Appeals Court has upheld the $675,000 verdict in favor of the RIAA against former Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum.  As originally reported in this blog, Tenenbaum had been sued for sharing songs that had copyright protection.  His plight attracted the services of famed Harvard professor Charles Nesson of "A Civil Action" fame.

This was not a case of a naive college students failing to understand the law and its ramifications. The court called Tenenbaum's conduct "egregious" in that he shared the files intentionally knowing that doing so was a copyright violation and continued to do so after several warnings from the RIAA.

The case explained:

Precedent / In The Air Tonight

I was previewing this video thinking it might provide a musical lesson about the concept of legal precedent.  It sort-of does. But what jumped out at me was another lesson on potential copyright infringement.   Compare and consider.

(Listen from :34 to 1:05)


(Listen from  0:53 to 1:22)

Lyric Rip-Off or Just a Pick Up Line?

In what is termed in the description for the video below as "perhaps the world's most groundless lawsuit," Ukranian pop singer Aza has sued Carly Rae Jepsen for sampling her lyrics in Jepsen's hit song, Call Me Maybe.

Aza:  "Call me. Here is my number."
Jepsen:  "But, here's my number. So, call me , maybe."

Hmmm. Shakespeare it is not.

Big Brother Busts Cyber Stealing

Big Brother is monitoring your illegal downloading.  And starting this week, he will send you letters telling you that he knows what you are doing.

Copyright scofflaws illegally downloading music, movies and videos will receive gentle reminder letters from their internet providers that their internet activities are being monitored and they have been busted. Participating internet service providers have agreed to "punish" repeat offenders by compromising their internet speed for several days as a concrete reminder of their prior bad acts.  Read all about it here.

Is this a breakthrough in policing the internet for illegal conduct?  Is this an historic partnership of law enforcement and private enterprise? Is it a further clarion call for an overhaul of intellectual property law and new business models for the entertainment industry?  Whatever it is, its Big Brother qualities are creepy.

Uh-oh, Uh-uh-oh, Not Such a Good Time

Can you make a copyright claim based on five notes and a couple of uh-oh's? Ally Burnett,a singer from Alabama has sued Carly Rae Jepsen and Owl City for copying elements of Burnett's original tune, Ah, It's a Love Song in the Jepsen/Owl City hit, Good Time.

Judge for yourself:

Joel gets KaZaA-mmed

NPR reports that the RIAA's judgment against Boston University graduate student Joel Tenebaum in the amount of $674,000 has been upheld by a Federal District Court.  The case that was first mentioned in this post back in 2010 claims Tenebaum had illegally downloaded 31 songs and then made them available to others through the peer to peer file sharing site, KaZaA.  The District Court action follows remand from the 1st Circuit for the purpose of considering a remittur.  The District Court upheld the original judgment. (The oral arguments from the 1st Circuit are available on YouTube.)

Tenebaum has since gone on to finish his PhD, but still needs to figure out how to deal with this crushing judgment.  This is a cautionary tale for our students.  One that they, sadly, often ignore.  Perhaps playing the audio of the NPR report in class will help.

I know that I have posted this video before, but when these issues come up I can't resist the urge to post this social commentary from Weird Al Yankovic.

The World's Most Lovable Video Bootlegger

It's final exam week at UConn.  That means that beginning this week, posts will become intermittent through the summer. Luckily, there is some "good" news this week allowing the Legal Studies Classroom Blog to go into summer mode on a high note.

You've got to love the NY Times article about 92-year-old Hyman "Big Hy" Strachman of Massapequa, NY.  The WW II vet spends his days ripping bootleg DVDs of first run movies which he sends free of charge to the troops in Afghanistan. According to the article, Big Hy has spent about $30,000 over the last 8 years sending the discs to military chaplains - because he knows they will give away the discs instead of selling them.

Does Big Hy know about copyright law?

“It’s not the right thing to do, but I did it,” Mr. Strachman said, acknowledging that his actions violated copyright law. “If I were younger,” he added, “maybe I’d be spending time in the hoosegow.”

What does the movie industry think of all this?

Howard Gantman, a spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America, said he did not believe its member studios were aware of Mr. Strachman’s operation. His sole comment dripped with the difficulty of going after a 92-year-old widower supporting the troops.

“We are grateful that the entertainment we produce can bring some enjoyment to them while they are away from home,” Mr. Gantman said.

Source of image: http://www.ibtimes.com/hyman-strachman-good-guy-pirate-92-year-old-wwii-vet-sends-bootlegged-dvds-troops-abroad-693550

Teller Sues to Protect Copyrighted Illusion

The Courthouse News Service reports that the illusionist performer named Teller of Penn and Teller has sued a Dutch performer for performing his copyrighted illusion known as "Shadows." the Dutch performer has since offered to sell the secret of the illusion. The lawsuit includes a request for injunctive relief to prevent this from happening.  The illusion is apparently copyrighted by Teller as a pantomime performance.

A video of the "Shadows" illusion follows:

Lawsuit Raises Question: "Have College Professors Become Digital Pirates?"

According to an article in the Technologist Blog, a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Atlanta raises this issue. The lawsuit apparently challenges a Fair Use claim by Georgia State University's e-reserves services which allow professors to post portions of textbooks for students to read online.

See related Fair Use post here.

Below are two videos on Fair Use for educators:

RIAA - Campus Downloading Video

This video from the RIAA dealing with "peeer to peer file sharing" may trend a bit toward propaganda, but the facts seem to be correct and it is an important issue for students to understand. See a related post here.

Copyright Infringement? You be The Judge!

Below is a demonstration that YouTubers have put together raising issues about copyright infringement.  You can go as long or as short as you like with these videos in class.

In 2009, Coldplay won two Grammy awards, for its song Viva la Vida, including song of the year.  Artist Joe Satriani and Coldplay worked out a confidential settlement of Satriani's claim that Viva la Vida contained substantial elements of his song, If I Could Fly.



Musical analysis:



Full Songs:





And is there more?

Featured Website - The Copyright Website

This website contains alot of practical information regarding copyright law. I like to use the music section of this site. I have used the George Harrison and ZZ Top examples in class.  The Harrison case is readily available.  I also use the George Harrison example in class to introduce a discussion of the case betwen Harrison and his former manager, Allen Klein.  That case deals with an agent's ongoing duty to protect a principal's confidential information. The music section is easy to use and a very nice classroom resource.  Despite my best effors, I have been unable to determine the identity of the host of this site, but the information has been reliable.

Access Copyright Website Here 



George Harrison:


Alan Klein:

 

Copyright: A Fair(y) Use Tale

The video below is a production of the Media Education Foundation. Recognizing the various Walt Disney Companies for being agressive pursuers of alleged copyright infringers, the Foundation ironically makes use of multiple short clips from Disney movies to educate the public about the right of "fair use" of copyrighted material. It is a bit long for classroom use, but can be assigned for viewing outside of class or as the anchor for an online discussion thread.

Peer to Peer File Sharing Liability

Liability for peer to peer file sharing of music is an issue in which many undergraduate students have both an interest and a dangerous propensity for accepting folklore as fact. The latest example of enormous civil judgments for downloading and sharing music files was reported today. The most famous example is probably the case involving Harvard professor Charles Nesson. The RIAA provides a free DVD entitled "Campus Downloading" that may be used in class to identify the issue.  It is not a discussion of the legal issues, but rather a no-nonsense presentation of the state of the law and RIAA's policy on enforcement. You may order a free copy of the DVD or play it directly from the website. To inject some balance into the discussion I also show the Weird Al Yankovic music video below where he cleverly challenges the notion that music was not meant to be shared.