Wednesday, March 25, 2020

The ‘Blurred Lines’ Case Scared Songwriters. But Its Time May Be Up.; The New York Times, March 24, 2020

, The New York Times;
Decisions in copyright cases involving Led Zeppelin and Katy Perry suggest the open season on lawsuits could be coming to a close.

"“Before Led Zeppelin’s en banc ruling, plaintiffs were on a roll,” said Joseph P. Fishman, an associate professor at the Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville. “That string of events built a narrative that successful musicians really needed to be worried about being sued. Now, with the Katy Perry verdict being thrown out only a week after the big Led Zeppelin decision, that narrative may change.”

The two decisions addressed what has become a key question as more copyright suits have focused on song fragments: what is original about them — and thus can be copyrighted — and what are basic building blocks that cannot be owned by any songwriter?"

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