Flog #8

This week’s discussion about music copyright gave me a lot to think about. I’m taking a music theory class this semester, so I’ve learned that many chords are used repeatedly, and combinations of notes within a key have already been explored by composers across different eras. Because of that, even though some songs sound incredibly similar, it’s entirely possible that the resemblance is just a coincidence.

I tried to put myself in the shoes of both the original creator and the person accused of copying, and it feels like both sides make valid points. There are legal guidelines that specify how much similarity in a piece of music can be considered plagiarism, and I think that sounds like a fair way. If it’s really an unconscious similarity, it wouldn’t be many of them. For example, when I first heard Gotthard’s Fist In Your Face, my immediate reaction was that it reminded me of Bon Jovi’s In And Out Of Love. The latter is a well-known glam metal song, but in this case, it was just a sense of déjà vu. The discussion around reusing one’s own work and whether that could lead to copyright issues was also interesting. I assume using your own writing, like a paper you wrote, should be fine. But if you’re in college, professors expect you to put effort into each class individually. So I understand why some professors might find it inappropriate to reuse work from another course. I know many songwriters enjoy reusing bits of their own material, and it usually doesn’t cause any trouble. So in the end, I think it really depends on the context.