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The plagiarized songs got 211.3 times more YouTube views than the original work on average.
Plagiarism lawsuits in the music industry generate a lot of press and seem to be more common in the digital age, where cutting out and outright stealing parts of songs has never been easier.
In this context, Johnny Depp was accused of having a song quite similar to a poem by 1974.
Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck have been accused of plagiarism for copying the lyrics of his song “Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade” from a piece sung by an imprisoned man, documented and published by a folklorist in 1974, according to a report by Rolling Stone.
A lot of song lyrics “18” by Depp/Beck are strikingly similar to the lines in the poem “a toast”a form of popular poetry called “Hobo Ben” and apparently written by a man named SlimWilson, who served a sentence for armed robbery in the Missouri State Penitentiary and who was documented by Bruce Jackson in his 1974 book, “Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me”, and a companion album Wilson, whose name is a pseudonym and does not appear in the song credits of Depp .
The music plagiarism is a hot topic in the music industry. Since Sam Smith to Bruno Mars Y Beyoncé.
Is there no such thing as an original thought? All, from Shakespeare to the Beatles to Zeppelin, they have been accused of stealing ideas from those who came before them, pBut while we are influenced by the world around us and composers are no exception.where is the line between being influenced by something and plagiarize ?
The law states that anything that reflects a “minimal spark” of creativity and originality can be copyrighted, including melody, chord progression, rhythm, and lyrics. In case of trial, the person alleging the infringement must prove two things:
- Access: that the infringer had heard or could reasonably be assumed to have heard the original song before writing his own.
- substantial similarity: the average listener can tell that one song has been copied from the other, che more elements the two works will have in common, the more likely they are to be substantially similar.
The plagiarism lawsuits Music videos in the music industry generate a lot of press and seem to be more common in the digital age where clipping and outright stealing of song parts has never been easier.
There is currently a boom in song copyright infringement cases in UK and US courts. March 11th, Katy Perry won an appeal in a case related to his 2013 hit “Dark Horse”. In the same month, Dua Lipa was hit by not one, but two lawsuits related to her song Levitate. and the single Ed Sheeran of 2017, “Shape of You”the most listened to song on Spotify, is the subject of a plagiarism claim by Sami Switch, a British rapper and singer-songwriter who claims that Sheeran stole elements of his 2015 song “Oh Why”.
However, according to research done by Fixgerald.
- Plagiarized songs get 211.3 times more YouTube views than the original job on average.
- 64 percent of artists settle for less than 150 thousand dollars when an artist is accused of plagiarism.
- Plagiarism in the music industry has increased since the advancement of digital media.
In the case of Johnny Depp, “Sad Motherfucking Parade” includes similar phrases from another song like:
“I’m ragged, I know, but I don’t smell bad”, “God bless the lady who’ll buy me a drink” and “What that funky son of a* really needs, kid, is a bath”.
“The only two lines I could find in the entire article that contributed [Depp y Beck] they are ‘Big time motherfucker’ and ‘Bust down to my level’”.
“Everything else is from Slim’s performance in my book. I have never come across anything like this. I’ve been posting stuff for 50 years, and this is the first time someone has copied something and put their own name on it.” Jackson told Rolling Stone.
Perhaps expecting all music to be 100 percent original is too much; any form of art resembles the inspirations or influences of other artists. Therefore, it is inevitable to find similarities between various things. However, it is also essential to draw the line between inspiration and imitation.
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