[Music] have you ever heard a song and thought wait this song sounds a lot like another song well it turns out that's something that happens all the time and it's not just the people who listen to music that get that feeling it's also the people who make it [Music] these are just a few famous musicians who have been accused of ripping off another famous musician's music most recently it was Ed Sheeran and his 2014 hit thinking out loud [Music] we'll be loving you till we're 17 versus this 1973 c
lassic Let's Get It On by the late Marvin Gaye really try Nikki how often do rich famous artists get taken to court over copying it happens less than you might actually think it's fairly rare but we do hear about these big cases because you're right there is a lot of money at stake here Ed Sheeran's hit was a hit it earned him a lot in terms of royalties but it can be more than just the royalties it can also just be your right of creation I understand why you would want to make a fuss and make i
t known that no I created this thing it's mine you see music is considered intellectual property that's your own exclusive knowledge or creations and intellectual property rights exist to protect them as your own that includes patents like you can get for your original invention trademarks to identify your unique product or service like a brand name or logo Trade Secrets like the secret recipe for your fried chicken or formula for your special Cola and copyright to protect your artistic or creat
ive works like a book a movie or yup a song why is music copyright so important copyright is important because this is how musicians get paid and copyright exists for these music creators as soon as their work is recorded or written down but music copyright can get more complicated than that take the situation with Taylor Swift she's been re-recording and re releasing her old albums over the past few years because when she was 14 she signed a contract that gave the copyright of her original reco
rdings to her record label so there's copyright over the actual words and music that the songwriter owns and then there's copyright over the recordings the sound recordings of those songs [Music] she didn't go away and she could re-record all of her own songs and then owns the recordings as well and she'll earn all of the royalties from the two it's also important to remember there's a big difference between copying or collaborating with another artist or sampling another other song [Music] when
you're using samples you actually have to clear or get permission to use both the words and the music so the Songwriter's permission but also permission to use that recording that you've sampled and put in your new song please some big copyright court cases have ended in artists paying up big and I mean big but when it came to the case of Ed Sheeran up against the family of Ed Townsend the co-writer of Let's get it on Ed was cleared of any copyright infringement when your legs don't work like t
hey used to before the court found the chord progression and Rhythm used in both songs wasn't so original in the first place they are in a Songwriter's alphabet our toolkit and should be there for all of us to use no one owns them all the all the way they are played in the same way that nobody owns the color blue coincidences happen all the time with tens of thousands of songs being uploaded to streaming services every day and everyone gets very excited when they hear this similarity and some pe
ople jump to this rather unfortunate conclusion that the only explanation for the similarity they perceive is plagiarism a lot of musicians agree it happens probably every musician and Songwriter's worst nightmare because I personally and I think us as musicians would never intentionally copy anyone because music is so personal to everybody and their um their brand especially in artists like Ed Sheeran so can you play me some songs that uh sound similar but are actually completely different song
s yeah for sure I'll be right [Music] feel like someone and then also um [Music] so you can see how they sound quite simple enough [Music] really similar yeah yeah so while it is important to protect music copyright some say it's also important to protect creativity for me uh like songwriting is always kind of like an emotional thing how am I feeling or what is something that I want to express so it's not like oh I want to copy that song Or I want to you know get that sort of vibe you go in ther
e because you're feeling something can you want to get out your emotions and express yourself creatively I think music is universal we as humans respond to it because it makes us feel and that's why it's so important so honey now [Music] until 11 arms arms arms arms oh you can stop recording now [Music]
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