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?"
