The first plagiarism lawsuit in music history
Plagiarism is an important aspect of music. It means someone has stolen somebody else’s intellectual property without the owner’s permission. In music, that would manifest as someone stealing another person’s song and passing it off as their own. This is clearly a problem, as originality is king within the music industry, so plagiarism cases are taken incredibly seriously; however, they can also be messy.
The issue with many plagiarism cases is that there are only so many chords and melodies in the world. Equally, artists are very precious about an idea that they believe wholeheartedly to be theirs. As such, many plagiarism cases are based on someone getting offended that some tracks are copies of theirs when they are actually just slightly similar.
For instance, in 2023, Ed Sheeran was taken to court after the heirs of Marvin Gaye’s estate claimed that he stole the soul classic ‘Let’s Get It On’ to write his song ‘Thinking Out Loud’. During the trial, Ed Sheeran brought his guitar into court and played the piece, explaining his writing process along the way. “I draw inspiration a lot from things in my life and family,” he said, going into the chord sequence and describing what in his life inspired the words.
The prosecution described a video of Sheeran weaving in and out of the two songs one day, performing them on stage, as a “smoking gun,” but Sheeran countered, saying that the works were merely in the same key and weren’t a carbon copy of one another.
Copyright law still struggles to keep up with the issues presented in music cases. While songs might have the same melody, it doesn’t mean they have been plagiarised. At the same time, provisions need to be set to stop pieces from being stolen, keep the music fresh, and prevent artists from being ripped off.
Generally, in law, cases set a precedent for how the law will be interpreted in the future, but because of the subjective nature of plagiarism cases, strict rules and guidelines are hard to establish. As such, the first successful case surrounding plagiarism had just as many question marks over it as the most recent.
In 1965, The Supremes released the song ‘Ask Any Girl’. It did well, as Motown Records had a habit of releasing hit after hit at the time. The owner, Berry Gordy, had a knack for getting the right artists working together and producing catchy choruses and happy melodies. However, he was also a ruthless businessman, renowned for demanding a lot from those who worked for Motown and cracking down on any rivals who threatened them.
Len Barry found himself on the end of this Hitsville ruthlessness. Following the release of his song ‘1-2-3’, Gordy took him to court for copying The Supremes track. It was a controversial case, as apart from the beginning of the piece, there aren’t many similarities between the two; however, the plight of the legal battle was enough for Len Barry to relinquish 15% of the royalties from the song.
“We were sued by Motown during the period when Berry Gordy was suing anyone whose records sounded like a Motown record,” said John Madara, the record’s producer, “We were sued, saying that ‘1-2-3’ was taken from a B-Side of a Supremes record called ‘Ask Any Girl’. The only similarity between the two songs is the first three notes, where The Supremes sang ‘Ask Any Girl’, and Lenny sang ‘1-2-3’. After that, there were no similarities, but their lawsuit said that our goal was to copy the Motown sound.”
Copyright law in music continues to be difficult to get on top of, especially in the modern age, where more music is being made and released than ever. The ambiguity of music, arguably the thing that makes it most desirable to listeners, also hinders it because it can be tricky to tell when a thought is original and when it is copied.
