Present Imperfect

Hugga trubba. | June 19, 2008

Just when I didn’t know what to write about, one of my favorite topics hits my RSS feeds: Plagiarism!

This time, it’s of the musical variety. Behold this article and video in which the ironically mustachioed* frontman of a band called Creaky Boards accuses Chris Martin of stealing a song called, not-mustache-ironically, “The Songs I Didn’t Write.”

To this, I say: Meh. It sounds sorta similar, but not similar enough. Then again, what is similar enough?

Ask the folks at the UCLA Law School Copyright Infringement Project. They’ve cataloged musical plagiarism suits by song, so you can get the inside legal scoop on, say, George Harrison v. the Chiffons (actually Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music), or better yet, Fantasy v. Fogerty.

The best thing about this site is the dry legal analysis that accompanies each case study. Take Tin Pan Apple v. Miller Brewing, for example. Once upon a time, Miller Brewing asked rap group The Fat Boys to star in an advertisement, but The Fat Boys declined because they were underage (Aw!). Miller then just went ahead and stuck Joe Piscopo in an inflatable fat suit and had him perform a thinly veiled version of the Fat Boys’ “Stick ’em.” Thus:

This case considers a nettlesome but ineluctable issue in many music infringement cases: at what point do non-protectible [sic] compositional elements like rhythmic motives, instrumental sounds or performance techniques, through their particular combination, become original expression? In the instant case, does the plaintiffs’ use of both a tongue trill and a “hugga hugga” call within the same work mean that they can prevent others from using the same combination of sounds in another work? The court did not decide this ultimate question, but did find that given that merely a “dash” of creativity will satisfy the originality requirement needed for copyright protection (citing Gasté v. Kaiserman [1988] — documented on this website) a jury might find that the Fat Boys’ use of these sounds in “Stick ‘em” constitutes protectible [sic] expression. Given the possibility of a jury determining this, the court denied the defendants’ request for summary judgment.

The ruling went the Fat Boys’ way and “hugga hugga” calls earned copyright protection.

Amen to that.

*Is a mustache really ironic if everyone knows you’re being ironic? Does mustache irony then more closely resemble classical dramatic irony wherein the consequences of the mustachioed personage’s actions are unknown to him but known to his audience? Like what if Jocasta was all “ooh, Oedipus, I really like your ‘Mustache Rides: 10¢’ shirt!”