Bright Lines: Musicologists Police the Boundaries of Copyright Law

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Todd Decker is a music historian who chairs the music department at Washington University in St. Louis. A few years ago, a local attorney called the department looking for help on a case. The lawye…

Blurred Lines

Sandy Wilbur, the musicologist who represented Williams and Thicke, said that the case had “opened the floodgates to those who believe that a groove, feel, or sound-alike constitute unauthorized copying.” Claims of infringement are usually settled without litigation, in part because juries can be so unpredictable.

“It was a pretty open-and-shut, old-time example of borrowing,” Decker says. “It was a melody. You could sing it. I sang it over and over again in court.”But the reaction to the verdict mirrored the horrified reaction to “Blurred Lines,” and revived the industry’s fears about frivolous suits. The murkiness of copyright law long predates “Blurred Lines.” The law protects the expression of an idea, but not the idea itself, leaving it to juries to assess where the line is. “Obviously, no principle can be stated as to when an imitator has gone beyond copying the ‘idea,’ and has borrowed its ‘expression,'” wrote Judge Learned Hand in 1960. “Decisions must therefore inevitably be ad hoc.

 

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