U Can’t Touch This: Algorithm to end music copyright suits?
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With hopes to bring an end to music copyright lawsuits forever, a pair of lawyers say they have created an algorithm to write every single music melody that could possibly exist and are releasing their entire catalog of tunes into the public domain, as reported this week on the science news website www.iflscience.com.
Lawyer, musician and programmer Damien Riehl told a reporter that the idea grew out of the discovery that all singer-songwriters are essentially walking on a “melodic minefield” due to the fact that there is a finite number of melodies that can exist, according to the article.
That means with each new song the chances of creating a tune that is unique decreases, and the potential for writing a melody that has already been recorded by someone else increases, according to the article.
Mr. Riehl explained in a recent talk that it wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the “ridiculous nature of copyright laws,” which state that a piece of music becomes copyrighted the moment it is recorded, according to the article, which highlights the possibility of the “subconscious infringement” that can occur “when an artist may have to pay a settlement to another artist even if they claim to have never heard the song that they are accused of copying."
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