Plagiarism in Music Industry
Plagiarism is an act of presenting
any idea which maybe new or old without giving credit or citing the information
to the content’s owner (Merriam-Webster, 2019) . The act itself can
be intentional or unintentional but there are strict laws in play if the act is
committed. There are many cases in the world today that are connected with the
act of plagiarism especially in the music industry where the source of
inspiration for chord progressions or beats can easily lead to this act. Some
of them can be connected with Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”, Ed Sheeran’s
Photograph” and Justin Bieber’s “Sorry”. Particularly, Robin Thicke’s song
featuring Pharrell Williams and T.I. was sued by the Gaye’s state lawyers for
allegedly stealing the entire music from Marvin Gaye’s “Got to give it up”. The
ruling favored the Gaye defendants who were claiming the ownership of the
entire genre but the similarity was only seen on the sheet music which resulted
in them paying over 7.3 million dollars to the Gaye’s estate as part of the
ruling (Grow, 2015) .
Janis Gaye, wife of Marvin Gaye was particularly grateful to the Gaye’s estate
for giving Marvin Gaye credit for what the did back in 1977.
In the case of Ed Sheeran, he was
sued by Harington and Leonard’s lawyer for stealing content from their song
“Amazing” which shares 39 notes in common and same choruses used in the Ed
Sheeran’s “Photograph” (Ortiz, 2016) . These acts of
plagiarism are accompanied by copyright infringement lawsuit in this case which
protects the artists from being forgotten for their creativity. In some cases,
new artists are unaware of this act of plagiarism and when they do it’s too
late. The voices of the new artists are unheard which results in demotivation
and loss of hope. It is theft to steal someone’s content without giving them
the credit for their work. In many cases, artists put all of their entire life
savings, time and dedication in their lyrics and music for one hope that people
will recognize them and love them for their work. If their piece of art is
stolen by other people then this will create a huge declination in the
production of creative new artists in the music industry.
To demotivate these acts of theft, a new set
of law has been set by European Union as Article 13 which promotes the right
shareholders of the content for their use of subject matter and creativity to prevent
the availability for content thieves and cooperate vultures. This new law is
being supported by renowned figures like Sir Paul McCartney and UK music CEO
Michael Dugher to protect new or old artists who are basically screwed by
content stealers and corporate vultures, feed off them and refuse to compensate
artists and music creators for their work (McMullan, Bedford, & Sims,
2018) .
These acts of theft have been finally exposed to the global platform to stop
the act of plagiarism and encourage the copyright infringement law for the sake
of art and artists.
References
Grow, K. (2015, 03 10). Music News. Retrieved
from Rolling Stone:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/robin-thicke-pharrell-lose-multi-million-dollar-blurred-lines-lawsuit-35975/
McMullan, T., Bedford, T., & Sims, E. (2018, 12
10). Article 13 approved: What are the EU copyright law amendments?
Retrieved from Alphr:
https://www.alphr.com/politics/1009470/article-13-EU-what-is-it-copyright
Merriam-Webster. (2019, 01 12). Plagiarize.
Retrieved from Merriam-Webster.com: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarize
Ortiz, E. (2016, 06 09). Ed Sheeran Sued for
Copyright Theft of Hit Song 'Photograph'. Retrieved from NBC News:
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/ed-sheeran-sued-copyright-theft-hit-song-photograph-n588356
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