Millennial songstress Miley Cyrus has been sued by Jamaican songwriter Michael May, who alleges that Miley’s 2013 song “We Can’t Stop” violates his copyright on a song he released 30 years ago called “We Run Things.” May seeks $300 million in damages for the alleged infringement, and for injunctive relief to prevent the song from being distributed or performed.
May’s 1988 song reached #1 in his native country, and he claims that around 50 percent of Miley’s song is derived from his hit. Her song contains the line, “We run things, things don’t run we” which May claims is creative material appropriated from his hit, which includes the line, “We run things, things no run we.”
Is her use of that phrase really copyright infringement? I listened to both songs (thank you, Spotify) and didn’t see — or rather, hear — a similarity between the two. This leaves the question, how close do lyrics have to be to one another to be considered to have been copied from an earlier work? Generally speaking, words or phrases in common use are not protected by copyright, because they are not sufficiently “creative” to be entitled to copyright protection. Recall that copyright law protects creative works reduced to a tangible medium of expression; if your work isn’t sufficiently “creative,” then you don’t get any protection.
This question was the subject of an earlier lawsuit against Taylor Swift for lyrics used in her hit “Shake It Off.” R & B group 3LW sued Swift, alleging that Swift’s line, ““cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.” was a copy of a line from their song, which went “ “players, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate.” The Federal court disagreed, noting that the phrase was common when 3LW wrote their song. The phrase lacked enough creativity to be protected under copyright law, because it was a phrase in common use.
In this case, the judge will have to decide if the phrase, which is a common use in Jamaica, came from May’s song, or whether it was in common use at the time May penned the song lyrics. If it was in use at the time, then it’s not creative, and Cyrus will prevail in the lawsuit. Copyright lawsuits are very fact-driven, and there is no “bright-line” test for copyright infringement. This is why it’s important to get competent legal advice if you are creating works that are “inspired” by the work of others.
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Copyright Wars: Miley Cyrus Sued for Copyright Infringement! posted first on https://trademarkdoctor.wordpress.com
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