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COPYRIGHT LAW ISSUES REGARDING COVER SONGS
If an artist wants to make a cover, he/she
must ask an owner of the song or a
management of an artist a permission to
make a cover. Then, agreements are
signed. Otherwise if an artist copies
another’s work and pass it off as her/his
own, then they’re guilty of plagiarism,
unless they can show that the similarity
was completely coincidental and that
there was no way that he/she could have
heard the work they’re accused of
copying. There is a very fine line to be
drawn between sound-alikes, parody and
plagiarism.
There are numerous of cases when wellknown
artists receive lawsuits because
they used someone’s original riffs,
rhythm, melodies, arrangements, thus
sometimes even similarities between
songs may be insubstantial, or just due
to serendipity. For example, the $5.3
million punishment against Robin Thicke
and Pharrell Williams for infringing
Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" to create
"Blurred Lines" made quite a loud noise
throughout the music industry."Blurred
Lines" by Robin Thicke and Pharrell
Williams was released in 2013. Two years
later, the song made the headlines as a
case of plagiarism. The initial claims were
talking about the overall sound being
similar to "Got To Give It Up", a song
released by Marvin Gaye in 1977. Eight
details of similarity of the songs were
discovered, five of those details related
to the melodies, one to the melody of the
bassline and two to the arrangement. In
this case this trial is unique, because
subtle signs of inspiration were
presented as "substantial similarities"
then blown up to direct one-to-one
copies.
82 www.AudationMagazine.com
The jury decision in the "Blurred Lines"
case defies the traditional legal
understanding of music copyright,
according to a number of legal experts.
In the past, you've generally had to show
that a song copied a series of notes, as in
a melody or a set of lyrics, in order to
prove copyright infringement. The
problem is "Blurred Lines" doesn't rip
either of those from the Gaye song.
Instead, it has a "vibe" close to that of
"Got to Give It Up," owing to their similar
rhythm pattern and certain production
choices like voices murmuring in the back
of the mix. And vibe was not something
you used to be able to put on trial.
On Friday 6 October 2017, the 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals has heard oral
arguments in the appeal of the "Blurred
Lines" lawsuit. During the appeal a legal
error was argued. It should be noted that
before the mid-1970s, sound recordings
weren't protectable under copyright law.
Congress changed that, butgiven that
Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" was one of the
last songs before the legislative change
went into effect, his family was forced to
litigate the "Blurred Lines" case under a
certain disadvantage that no modern
music creator would today face. Only
protectable elements were given weight
— and according to U.S. District Judge
John Kronstadt, that meant forgoing any
analysis of Gaye's original "Got to Give It
Up" recording. Instead, what's
protectable is whatever was expressed
by the sheet music deposited at the U.S.
Copyright Office. Jurors never got to hear