Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law Volume 15 Issue 2 Issue 2 - Winter 2013 Article 1 2013 Copyright Infringement of Music: Determining Whether What Sounds Alike Is Alike Margit Livingston Joseph Urbinato Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw Part of the Intellectual Property Law Commons Recommended Citation Margit Livingston and Joseph Urbinato, Copyright Infringement of Music: Determining Whether What Sounds Alike Is Alike, 15 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law 227 (2020) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw/vol15/iss2/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law by an authorized editor of Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. VANDERBILT JOURNAL OF ENTERTAINMENT AND TECHNOLOGY LAW VOLUME 15 WINTER 2013 NUMBER 2 Copyright Infringement of Music: Determining Whether What Sounds Alike Is Alike Margit Livingston* and Joseph Urbinato** ABSTRACT The standard for copyright infringement is the same across different forms of expression. But musical expression poses special challenges for courts deciding infringement disputes because of its unique attributes. Tonality in Western music offers finite compositional choices that will be pleasing or satisfying to the ear. The vast storehouse of existing public domain music means that many of those choices have been exhausted. Although independent creation negates plagiarism, the inevitable similarity among musical pieces within the same genre leaves courts in a quandary as to whether defendant composers infringed earlier copyrighted works or simply found their own way to a similar melody, harmony, rhythm, or formal structure.