Intellectual Property Law in the News

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With sources

I’m sure some of you are listening to music to help keep yourself awake while reading about intellectual property law. Well, for this discussion, listening to music can directly help you learn about intellectual property law. For this discussion, we will try to liven things up a bit by looking at some cases involving “music plagiarism.” While some of the legal issues in this discussion are very specific for the music industry, keep in mind that the purpose of intellectual property protection is pretty much the same across industries. The idea is to encourage innovation and creativity by allowing the creator to earn a profit from their new creation without fear of their ideas being stolen. But intellectual property laws are also not supposed to be so severe that they will discourage others from innovating in the same industry. For this discussion, we will look at the music industry, since this discussion should be a tad bit more lively than a discussion about cases such as the highly technical disputes between Samsung and Apple over advanced smartphone technologies.

One of the most widely covered intellectual property law cases in recent history is the lawsuit by the family of Marvin Gaye against the team of Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke over their hit song “Blurred Lines”. Marvin Gaye’s family won a judgement of over $7 million, with the jury agreeing that “Blurred Lines” was a copyright infringement of the Marvin Gaye song “Got to Give It Up.” Accusations and lawsuits over music plagiarism are nothing new, but some legal experts were surprised by this verdict, and believe it will greatly widen the extent of intellectual property protection for songwriters for future cases.

For this discussion, find a case of a copyright infringement case involving a song. You can choose the Marvin Gaye case if you are a really big fan of “Blurred Lines” or “Got to Give It Up.” But so everyone does not choose the same songs, it is strongly preferable that you find another case. Whatever your favorite genre of music, you can probably find some kind of dispute, as anytime there is a big hit song it is common that other songwriters will claim their own song ideas were stolen. Another recent case involved an accusation that Sam Smith copied a song by Tom Petty. If you prefer the golden oldies, there are many famous cases, such as Chuck Berry versus the Beach Boys or a lawsuit against George Harrison alleging that he ripped off the song “He’s So Fine” by the Shangri-Las. These are just a couple examples, so do some research and find a case that interests you.

Once you have found a good example, carefully listen to the two songs that were in dispute. Post the links to YouTube if videos are available to share with your classmates. Then discuss the following issues:

1. On first listen, what was your immediate reaction? Do the two songs sound so much alike that you are not surprised that a lawsuit was threatened or filed? Or are you puzzled that there was a dispute?
2. Based on listening to the songs and what you read about the legal dispute, what lessons do you think you have learned about intellectual property law? Cite one of the readings from the background materials, or another article or book from Trident library on intellectual property law.

While this discussion has focused on the very narrow area of music copyrights, what implications does this have for the wider business community? Is very strict enforcement of intellectual property law such as in the “Blurred Lines” case something that encourages or discourages creativity and innovation?

Respond to: 

1. 

Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice, Baby” versus Queen’s and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure”

Dale Avery 

One case involving music plagiarism was wrote about in a 2016 Rolling Stone’s article.  Vanilla Ice was sued in 1989 by Queen and David Bowie.  Ice’s version, “Ice, Ice, Baby” and Queen’s and David Bowie’s version, “Under Pressure”  essentially had the same hook with the exception that Ice had an extra drumbeat.  They settled out of court for an undisclosed amount (Runtagh, 2016, para. 1). 

It was extremely clear from listening to the songs that Vanilla Ice definitely used Queen’s and David Bowie’s musical creation to formulate his song.  It was a clear cut case of copyright infringement.

2. 

The Verve vs. The Rolling Stones

Ryan Lafever 

Ouch.  All I can say is “ouch”.  This one must have hurt.  I genuinely felt bad for the Verve just reading this one:

Rolling Stones, “The Last Time”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKC5cdGBY04 

The Verve, “Bittersweet Symphony”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyu1KKwC74

The long and short of this one is that “The Last Time” was recorded by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra in 1965 for the Rolling Stones.  The Verve asked for, and received permission, to sample a portion of the song for their own “Bittersweet Symphony”.  The Rolling Stones agreed to allow The Verve to use a 5-note section of the song in exchange for half of the royalties.  “Bittersweet Symphony” ended up being very successful.  The Rolling Stones, however, felt that The Verve had sampled more of the song than they originally agreed to and filed a plagiarism suit against The Verve.  The Verve ended up losing all credit for “Bittersweet Symphony” to The Rolling Stones, had to watch as it was used in a Nike commercial without their consent, and worst of all, “Bittersweet Symphony” won a Grammy, but under Mick Jagger and Keith Richards names.  Talk about spiteful.