THIS IS THE HOME PAGE FOR LAW 5734 – COPYRIGHT AND MUSIC FOR THE SPRING 2025 EDITION OF THE COURSE.
This team taught seminar will meet on Wednesdays from 12:40 pm to 2:40 pm. The class will meet on Zoom rather than face to face. Class meetings will not be recorded. Students are expected to be present for each meeting of the course.
- Syllabus and readings (home page)
- Important course Information: materials, assignments, mechanics, policies, and grading
- Open Educational Resources (OER) copyright and permissions information
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This seminar explores intersections among copyright law, technological innovation, entertainment industries, and political and cultural change, using music as its central case study. Copyright law plays an important role in the contemporary landscape of the music industry. Digital platforms and cultural norms also increasingly shape how music is made, distributed, and enjoyed. Students will learn about how law is only one part of the entertainment sector. Part history, part law, part economics, and part culture, this collaborative seminar will feature faculty members in dialogue with one another and with guests who work in the art and business of music.
BACKGROUND AND REFERENCE MATERIALS
- All You Need to Know About the Music Business (Industry) (online access via Pitt’s University Library System)
- Theft! A History of Music (History) (free and open)
- Music Copyright Infringement Resource (Cases) (free and open)
- Musicmap | The Genealogy and History of Popular Music Genres (free and open)
- Music Grotto, Music Genres List (free and open)
- WhoSampled (free and open)
REQUIRED ASSIGNMENTS
Weekly Readings
Each week, you’ll have 1-2 longer readings and 2-3 shorter readings, and, after the first class, 1-2 legal sources to prepare for the week. You’ll also have 3-4 short pop culture clips to help ground your understanding of the week’s material. Given the online delivery of the course, you should watch these at home or otherwise on your own. Class will be largely directed by student interests and questions based on those readings. If you’re unfamiliar with academic readings or could benefit from tips for reading more effectively and efficiently, here’s a great guide. Weekly class preparation – not including assignments (meaning steps toward completing the research paper) – should take 3-4 hours per week. If it is taking much longer, do let us know.
Ripped from the Headlines
At the beginning of the semester, you’ll be asked to sign up for a day to present for 5-7 minutes at the beginning of class on a Ripped from the Headlines topic. This topic can engage case law or musical culture related to the themes, concepts, and readings for the day. You’ll be expected to send a link to the case or short article discussing your chosen topic at least 48 hours before class time. This offers a way to engage legal decisions as well as get a sense of how the material we’re discussing appear in the world.
Short Essays and Required Meetings
Over the semester, you’ll be required to schedule three meetings with one of Prof. Madison or Prof. Vats to ensure that you’re making good progress in the course toward completion of the research paper. Those meetings will address three assignments: 1) topic justification, 2) concept/methodology justification, and 3) essay rough draft.
Final Research Paper
The graded work for the course is a 25-30 page research paper on a legal topic related to the course content. All papers should be double spaced, in 12 point Times New Roman, with citations in a consistent format. Citations are not graded for their form; complete them to the best of your ability.
Please see the course writing guidelines for additional information.
READING ASSIGNMENTS AND OUTLINE OF CLASSES
CLASS 1: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2025 / INTRODUCTION + CLASSICAL
Themes: What is music? What historical landmarks are important in discussing music, e.g. notation, secularization, shareability? How did music evolve from practice to property? What are the implications of that evolution on the production, circulation, and reception of music? What is a genre? And to paraphrase the legendary Tina Turner, what’s law got to do with it?
Concepts: Human flourishing, property rights, musical genre
Readings
- David J. Hesmondhalgh, “Introduction,” in Why Music Matters (2013)
- Michael W. Carroll, “Whose Music is it Anyway? How We Came to View Musical Expression as a Form of Property”
- The Grotesque Legacy of Music as Property
Pop Culture Clips!
- Amadeus (trailer)
- “Rock Me Amadeus” (the banality of pop music!)
- John Cage, 4’33” [If copyright is usually associated with “organized” noise, should Cage and his estate be permitted to claim copyright in “found” noise? Is the distinction so clear? One dispute tested the proposition.]
- Baton Bunny
CLASS 2: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2025 / RAGTIME + FOLK
Themes: How has music changed over time? What role has technology, e.g. mechanical music, played in this? What did law, specifically copyright, do to facilitate and hinder these evolutions? How did they shift publics and their relationships to sound and music across the globe?
Concepts: Encoding music, copyright exploitation, musical technocultures
Readings
- Gerardo Con Díaz, “Encoding Music: Perforated Paper, Copyright Law, and the Legibility of Code, 1880–1908”
- Music Cultures of Mechanical Reproduction
- The Insane Chain of Sampling Rights
- Alan Lomax Collection from the American Folklife Center (Listen to 2-3 tracks on Spotify)
Legal Sources
Pop Culture Clips!
- The Sting
- “The Entertainer” [Scott Joplin/Marvin Hamlisch]
- Country Joe & the Fish “Fixin’ to Die Rag”
CLASS 3: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2025 / BLUES TO JAZZ
Assignment: *TOPIC JUSTIFICATION DUE*
Themes: What does copyright law “protect” with respect to music? (“Protect” from what? From who? Why use “scare quotes”?) What are the benefits and drawbacks with the (changing) scope of copyright, particularly with respect to appropriation and credit? How has this played out with respect to race and gender? What does this tell us about music as a culture v. music as a business?
Concepts: Intersectional oppression, cultural appropriation, race neutrality
Readings
- The White Reception of Jazz in America
- K.J. Greene, “Intellectual Property at the Intersection of Race and Gender: Lady Sings the Blues”
- Second Hand Songs, “Natural Blues” (Explore “Originals” and “Versions”)
Legal Sources
- Arnstein v. Porter, 154 F.2d 464 (2d Cir. 1946) [Arnstein v. Porter at the GWU Music Copyright Infringement Resource]
- Supreme Records v. Decca Records, 90 F. Supp. 904 (S.D. Cal. 1950)
Pop Culture Clips!
- Tin Pan Alley
- How This Drum Beat Changed Hip Hop Forever
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
- Episode 3: The Birth of American Music [Optional Paywalled]
CLASS 4, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2025 / SINGER SONGWRITERS
Themes: What is the singer songwriter era in the United States? How did it reflect – and generate – shifts in the structure of copyright and economic and cultural power? How did the rise of the singer songwriter shift musical culture and production? How did the genre interface with culture, race, and gender? What genres did singer songwriters embrace then and now?
Concepts: Collective authorship, folk music, social movements
Readings
- William G. Roy, “Aesthetic Identity, Race & American Folk Music”
- Don E. Tomlinson, “Everything That Glitters Is Not Gold: Songwriter-Music Publisher Agreements and Disagreements”
- Daniella Fischetti, “Lost in Transcription: the Impact of Copyright Legislation on Female Folk Musicians of the Twentieth Century” [Skim].
- Bob Dylan Wins Suit Against Co-Creator of “Hurricane” & Remains the Champion of the World
Legal Sources
Pop Culture Clips!
CLASS 5, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2025 / RHYTHM & BLUES
Themes: What is the history of R&B? How did the recording industry categorize R&B music? How did copyrights in R&B music relate to issues of publicity, identity, materiality, celebrity, and labor? In what ways did R&B artists get exploited and facilitate exploitation? In what ways does the focus on artists steer attention away from the roles of music publishers, labels, distributors, and radio and television networks?
Keywords: Race records (Blackface minstrelsy), master recordings, sampling culture
Readings
- Tell It Like It is: A History of Rhythm & Blues
- Richard Osborne, “Masters and Slaves: Black Artists and the Ownership of Sound Recording Copyright,” Palgrave Handbook of Critical Music Industry Studies”
- Kembrew McLeod, “Confessions of an Intellectual (Property)”
Legal Sources
Pop Culture Clips!
- Negro Spirituals
- Motherless Child v. Motherless Child
- I Got A Woman
- Twenty Feet From Stardom
- Dreamgirls
CLASS 6, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2025 / SOUL
Themes: What is the cultural history of soul music? What music industry conflicts did soul create? How did record companies produce soul and the culture around it? How did companies like Motown and Stax impact (o benefit from, or suffer from) the economics of copyright ownership and music production?
Concepts: Record labels, Motown Sound, postfeminist copyright
Readings
- Toni Lester, “Blurred Lines – Where Copyright Ends and Cultural Appropriation Begins – The Case of Robin Thicke versus Bridgeport Music and the Estate of Marvin Gaye”
- Robert Fink, “Blurred Lines, Ur-Lines, and Color Lines”
- Anjali Vats, “Owning Your Masters: Taylor’s Version”
Legal Sources
Pop Culture Clips!
CLASS, 7, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2025 / ROCK ‘N ROLL
Assignment: *CONCEPT/METHODOLOGY PAPER DUE*
Themes: What are the origins of rock and roll music? Who controlled the stories around that music? Who owned rock and roll? What material economies emerged in the 1950s and beyond to support rock and roll? How did rock and roll manifest in and with the cultural changes of the era?
Concepts: Racial imagination, musical counternarratives, emotional authenticity
Readings
- Jack Hamilton, “Introduction,” Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination (2016)
- Richard A. Peterson, “Why 1955? Explaining the Advent of Rock Music”
- Marie Connolly & Alan B. Krueger, “Rockonomics: The Economics of Popular Music”
- Ashawnta Jackson, “Race, Rock, and Breaking Barriers” [Optional]
CLASS 8, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2025 / PUNK!
Themes: How did punk emerge as a genre? What were the core tenets of punk culture? How did punk ethos relate to law and economics? What intellectual property strategies did punks make thinkable? Why are they important to the cultural politics of music?
Concepts: Punk economics, subversive property, antifascist politics
Readings
- Stacy Thompson. “Market Failure: Punk Economics, Early and Late”
- Chris Rojec, “P2P Leisure Exchange: Net Banditry and the Policing of Intellectual Property”
- Sarah Keenan, “Hillary Clinton, Riot Grrrl, and Subversive Property”
Legal Sources
Pop Culture Clips!
CLASS 9, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2025 / HIP HOP AND FUNK
Themes: What is an author? How is authorship defined as legal, cultural, and artistic projects? How is it defined as a racial project? How does hip hop, as a genre, subvert historical definitions of authorship? How do different technologies interface with the concept of authorship?
Keywords: Romantic authorship, sonic culture, musical sampling
Readings
- Frederick Vincent, “Funk and Afro Futurism: The Past, Present, and Future of the Funk”
- Greg Tate, “The Meteoric Rise of Hip Hop”
- James Boyle, “Copyright and the Invention of Authorship”
Legal Sources
- TufAmerica v. Diamond et al. (Beastie Boys), 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59546 (2015).
- Grand Upright Music v. Warner Bros., 780 F. Supp. 182 (S.D.N.Y. 1991)
- Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. UMG Recordings, 585 F.3d 267 (6th Cir. 2009)
Pop Culture Clips!
- Shakespeare in Love
- Gil Scott Heron, On Blues and Poetry
- Amiri Baraka, Black Art
- Summoning the Mothership
CLASS 10, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2025 / WORLD MUSIC
Assignment: *ROUGH DRAFTS DUE*
Themes: How does copyright operate outside of the US? Who has the cultural and legal right(s) to define authorship? What has digital streaming changed about the landscape of “world music” and its consumption? How do musical communities operate without taking up
Concepts: “World music,” collective ownership, decolonial copyright
Readings
- Ammar Kalia, “So Flawed and So Problematic: Why the Term World Music is Dead”
- Anthony Seeger, “The Selective Protection of Musical Ideas: The ‘Creations’ and the Dispossessed”
- Veit Erlman, “Introduction,” in Lion’s Share: Remaking South African Copyright
Legal Sources
- Bad Bunny Reggaeton Copyright Lawsuit Can Move Forward, Judge Says
- Cleveland Constantine Browne et al. v. Rodney Sebastian Clark Donalds et al., Order on Motion to Dismiss (2024) [Skim]
Pop Culture Clips!
CLASS 11, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2025 / COUNTRY AND GENDER BENDING [CHANGED]
Themes: How does country music relate to other genres we have discussed? What role did technology play in the growth and development of “hillbilly music”? How has copyright law interfaced with folk music? How did the recording industry and radio industry impact country music? Is the concept of “genre” as (culturally) (historically) (economically) (legally) solid as we think?
Concepts: Remix culture, hillbilly music, country authenticity (the Nashville Sound), Western music (the Bakersfield Sound)
Readings
- Race And Country Music, Then And Now: The Record : NPR
- Sophie Thackray, Can’t Nobody Tell Him Nothin’: “Old Town Road” and the Reappropriation of Country Music by the Yeehaw Agenda”
- John Schneider, “Radio and the Roots of Country Music”
Pop Culture Clips!
- Lil Nas X, Old Town Road, ft. Billy Ray Cyrus
- Beyoncé, Texas Hold ‘Em
- Why Is Country Music So White? | Between The Lines
CLASS 12, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2025 / WRITING AND REVISING Q&A [CHANGED]
Bring your rough drafts and revision plans to class for group work and writing Q&A
Readings
- Cambridge Centre for International Research, How to Write a Research Paper
- Constructing Effective Research Paragraphs
- Michael J. Madison, Where Does Creativity Come from? And Other Stories of Copyright
CLASS 13, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2025 / ROBOT SOUNDALIKES AND DIGITAL FUTURES
Themes: What impacts have contemporary technologies such as digital streaming and artificial intelligence had on the production and circulation of music? How should copyright law grapple with soundalikes? What rights should musicians have in their likenesses, visual and sonic?
Concepts: Soundalike recordings, publicity rights, digital streaming
Readings
- AI Created a Song Mimicking the Work of Drake and The Weeknd. What Does that Mean for Copyright Law?
- Record Companies Bring Landmark Cases for Responsible AI Against Suno and Udio in Boston and New York Federal Courts, Respectively
- Mark Mulligan, “Hold or Twist”
- Akanksha Majumdar, “Facing the Music: The Future of Copyright Law and Artificial Intelligence in Music Industry”
Legal Sources
- Aaron Moss, Copyright Lately, “Why Astley’s New Soundalike Lawsuit Should Be Rickrolled Out Of Court,” January 31, 2023
- Richard “Rick” Paul Astley v. Yung Gravy, Complaint [Skim]
Pop Culture Clips