What would the copyright laws probably say about these 3 similar pieces of music?
<p>Hopefully, someone with some knowledge or background in copyright and music can provide me with some insight for this question.</p>
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<p>The following 3 short pieces of music seem to share a similar tune (or, at least, some music notes) to certain extent. These 3 pieces were written by 3 different musicians/composers, and are sold on 2 different websites.</p>
<p>Would you please listen to them, and help me with these 2 questions :</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Are there certain levels of similarity or plagiarism among these 3 pieces ?</p>
</li>
<li><p>What do you think the copyright law for music would probably say about these
3 pieces ? (Is it potentially a copyright issue or not ? Or is it unclear either way ? undecided ? Difficult to say ? Not enough data to decide ?)</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> I don't even know if these 3 composers get their inspirations for their own piece <strong>independently</strong> from a common and publicly available music source or not.</p>
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<p>Here are the link to the 3 pieces of music:</p>
<p>(1) Title: Meditative Piano (Sold at the website AudioJungle.com)</p>
<p><a href="https://audiojungle.net/item/meditative-piano/32206211" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://audiojungle.net/item/meditative-piano/32206211</a></p>
<p>(2) Title: Nature Beauty (Sold at the website MelodyLoops.com)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.melodyloops.com/tracks/nature-beauty/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.melodyloops.com/tracks/nature-beauty/</a></p>
<p>(3) Title: Magical Stars (Sold at the website MelodyLoops.com)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.melodyloops.com/tracks/magical-stars/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.melodyloops.com/tracks/magical-stars/</a></p>

<p>There seems, to my ear, to be a degree of similarity between the first two works. The third does not sound, to me, very similar to either of the first two. That is not a legal question, and I am no expert.</p>
<p>However, all of these seem to be simple themes of only a few notes, repeated, in one case with some variations. The history of music is replete with examples of short themes or figures duplicated without intentional copying. Generally, to win a copyright suit over a claimed infringement of a musical copyright one must show either proven direct copying, or identity of melody over a long enough passage that independent invention is not plausible. Normally access of the alleged infringer to the claimed source is also shown. How much identity is needed is a judgement call for the court involved, often based on expert testimony, but I rather doubt if the short themes linked in the question would be found to infringe one another.</p>
<p>In any case, even if identity is proved, it is possible that both are copying some earlier source, perhaps one in the public domain, or one properly licensed. It is also possible that one of thee has obtained a license from another and so is perfectly legal. There is no way to know without the records of those involved.</p>

copyright music