Monday, March 24, 2008

Unconscious Plagiarism

In Three Boys Music v. Michael Bolton, 212 F.3d 477 (9th Cir. 2000), cert. den'd sub nom. Bolton v. Three Boys Music Corp., 531 U.S. 1126 (2001), the Ninth Circuit's upheld a jury award of $5.4 million against Michael Bolton and Sony (the record company associated with him) for "unconsciously" plagiarizing the Isley Brothers' "Love is a Wonderful Thing." As noted by the Columbia Law Library Music Plagiarism Project, the case is comparable to Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music, 420 F. Supp. 177 (S.D.N.Y. 1976), modified and remanded sub nom., ABKCO Music, Inc. v. Harrisongs Music, Ltd., 722 F.2d 988, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 15562, Copy. L. Rep. (CCH) P25603, 221 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 490 (2d Cir. N.Y. 1983), in which the court held that in his hit song "My Sweet Lord" George Harrison had "unconsciously misappropriated the musical essence of 'He's So Fine.'"

1 comment:

kaney said...

The unconscious mind was curing me of this tragic experience through my own literature, since I'm a writer who always writes from the inspiration of the unconscious mind. Jung had analyzed the literary works of a few authors who wrote their works based on the unconscious mind, showing how clear the message given by the unconscious was, while the authors didn't see it.

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