Singing to court
SANDTON – Many musicians have found themselves moving from a stage to a courtroom for copying another musician's song.
Musicians often find themselves in hot water for copying another artist’s tune.
Attorney Tyrone Walker explained that this issue is a lot more common than one may think. “The singer, Robin Thicke, lost a multi-million dollar court case for copying a Marvin Gaye song. The court found that singer Robin Thicke and producer, Pharell Williams infringed the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song Got To Give It Up and awarded damages to Marvin Gaye’s children. A jury awarded the children more than seven million dollars.”
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According to Walker, this is not the first time a music artist or producer has been sued for copying another song. “Artists that have been involved in copyright lawsuits include Avril Lavigne, Coldplay, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj.”
Another high-profile case described by Walker was that of English rock band, Led Zeppelin. “Their song, Stairway to heaven, caused the band a headache and they were accused of copying another song from the 1960s.
However, a Los Angeles court found that Led Zeppelin did not steal a part of a song for their introduction to their famous hit, Stairway to Heaven. Led Zeppelin has been accused on a number of occasions of stealing other artists’ works.”
A Supreme Court ruling in 2014, over the movie Raging Bull, was an iconic case in terms of copyright law. “This case concluded that only copyright cases with damages dating back three years and continuing into the future could be brought in front of the court.”
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Another high-profile case involved Michael Bolton and musical group, The Isley Brothers. Walker elaborated, “Michael Bolton lost a copyright infringement case against the Isley Brothers and had to pay more than five million dollars to the group. Bolton allegedly copied the song lyrics and the name of the group’s song.”
In terms of the legal rules on the matter,Walker said, “Songs or melodies are covered by the South African Copyright Act in the form of musical work. A musical work can have protection in most cases for the life of the author or owner and a further 50 years from the end of the year in which the author dies.”
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