Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/08/02/jury-katy-perrys-dark-horse.html
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It’s funny, I always thought that parts of the “Dark Horse” had a very similar sound to The Art of Noise’s “Moments in Love”, which I greatly prefer.
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What am I missing? I don’t think those pieces sound at all like each other, not even the supposedly violating falling scale harmonic. They’re not in the same key, not played with the same instrument, not at the same tempo. There’s only marginal similarity in the arrangement of the notes, and even there I thought I heard a difference (4, 3, 1 vs. 4, 2, 1, 1). I didn’t think musical phrases were copyrightable unless it was a complete ripoff of another artists use of that phrase, like Ice, Ice, Baby ripping of Under Pressure.
I guess Art of Noise has a case now against a whole SLEW of fellow artists.
Would love to hear those two harmonics isolated so I could compare them better. I’m sure that’s what they did at the trial.
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I hope there’s a way for them to have this overturned on appeal. This is about as egregiously stupid as hen juries decide something cases cancer when there’s no scientific consensus on it.
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I mean, what do you expect from a jury made up of chickens?
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Rick Beato has a good rundown…
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I suffered through both songs and was like, “I don’t get it.” Maybe the jury just didn’t want to have to listen to either of the songs again.
I bet Flame’s pastor is going to give a sermon on tithing, and how it should be calculated before taxes, lawyer fees, etc.
I hope she appeals, as this is a more stupid decision than the Blurred Lines case.
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Sweet, listening now. Love him.
EDIT: Yep, good breakdown. That’s why I love this guy, his knowledge is deep, wide, and he can really show you what’s going on. And he thinks it’s a bogus lawsuit and a bogus result as well.
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True, but why would Trevor Horn sue himself?
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They’re not making Christianity better, they’re making copyright law worse.
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Beato breaks down songs in such a high-quality way. Good video, although I will say that his “why did they wait until 2019 to sue?” is off base. “Dark Horse” was released in late 2013 and the lawsuit started in 2014.
I know almost nothing about copyright cases, but I know that it’s really hard to overturn a jury verdict on appeal (see, for example, the failed “Blurred Lines” appeal). Rather than spend the time and money to take the chance, the parties will likely settle the case for some lesser amount.
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Performance art!
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Well Disney and the other big media corps already did that. Kudos to Christianity for their gospel of prosperity, which allows them to massively profit from such laws.
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There are only so many notes, so many combinations that sound good in a specific key.
see below:
Its really gone too far, the litigation over a few notes.
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More generally, the idea of juries determining guilt or innocence is dumb, particularly in complex cases. Judges, qualified and versed in law should do that, after considering advice from subject-matter experts. Guilt or innocence is a matter of fact, not opinion, and nor should it determined by votes/consensus. Juries’ role should be restricted to being a proxy for society in determining the level of outrage at the crime and therefore guiding sentencing only.
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There are only 12 notes in an octave. There are millions of musicians. The chance of any one melody being completely unique? Vanishingly low.
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As a plaintiff’s lawyer in this case, you would certainly try to exclude jurors that know anything about music at all. Clearly this entire jury was tone-deaf. And this “Christian” rapper? Um yeah, WWJS - who would Jesus sue?
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Based on these songs it seems clear that all the good melodies have been done.
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Oh yeah, I remember seeing that years ago. Good stuff.
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Thanks for posting that. This lawsuit was bullshit.
Guess Perry needs to have better expert witnesses?
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