Blog Posts
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Brazilian Judge Rules To Pull Adele’s Million Years Ago Globally
A Brazilian court recently made waves by ordering Adele’s 2015 song Million Years Ago to be pulled globally, citing plagiarism claims from Brazilian samba composer Toninho Geraes. Geraes alleges that Adele’s track closely resembles his song Mulheres, recorded by Martinho da Vila in 1995. While the song remains on major platforms, this story highlights the growing complexities…
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ELVIS Law and Fake Drake
States have long had laws restricting the use of a celebrities’ “name, image and likeness” for commercial purposes such as advertising. The issue is gaining momentum because of AI generated “deep fakes” such as the notorious “Fake Drake” song that dropped on streaming platforms recently. To address this risk, Tennessee has now enacted the Ensuring…
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The Finell Hierarchy of Elements in Assessing Substantial Similarities
In evaluating music enmeshed in plagiarism disputes, the foremost questions a musicologist addresses are: Are these works alike? If so, how are they alike? Are their underlying compositional features alike? In my own musicological education and its application to copyright infringement disputes, I have developed and relied upon a hierarchy of musical features in assessing…