Forensic Musicologist Brian McBrearty says he believes the copyright lawsuit filed by Steely and Clevie against the reggaeton community is ‘silly‘ and has no clear basis for protection under U.S. law.
The riddim making dancehall duo submitted a copyright documents for the 1990s dancehall hit song “Dem Bow” by Shabba Ranks in a Los Angeles Court, but Brian, speaking exclusively with WMV says that will not be enough to stake claim over and entire genre even if the riddim is similar to “Dem Bow” genre songs.
A California judge is set to decide if the case will go to jury trial on September 22 based on evidence presented by the plaintiffs and the dismissal request by lawyers of the defendants which include Pitbull, Drake, Justin Timberlake, Karol G, Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee and more. If the case goes to trial, a forensic musicologist like Brian will be called in to determine whether or not there is a common thread between 1800 reggaeton songs and Steely and Clevie’s 1989 riddim ‘Fish Market’.
The San Francisco native admits he is not acquainted with reggae and dancehall culture and only became interested upon hearing about the Steely and Clevie Case. He also says he has been hired by record labels and advertising companies to ensure there is no infringement in songs they may use.
Who are you and how did you get your present job?
Brian McBrearty, I am a forensic musicologist who assists in illuminating the matters of music in matters of music copyrights.
How does one become a forensic musicologist?
Well there is musicology study, but most often musicology study focuses on ethnomusicology which is not really so much about copyright or even law, but about sociology and about how music relates to culture and history. A forensic musicologist is more theory based and has to be familiar with music history, theory and copyright as it pertains to a civil lawsuit.
How acquainted are you with reggae-dancehall culture?
Not very, my only exposure to dancehall is what I have looked into regarding the Steely and Clevie lawsuit.
So Clevie told me there is a secret ingredient (hidden note) that has been copied from the “Fish Market” riddim, how likely are they to win?
The long and short of it is, I don’t find the elements that they see across the thousands of songs, are not the kind of things that copyright seeks to protect. Part of the reason is copyright wants to promote new music and balancing and incentivizing new music by promising to protect your IP in the future but not doing that so stringently that they prevent others from being able to make music that is somewhat similar to what was before.
The kinds of elements that are in the ‘Fish Market’ that they are seeking to claim should not be proliferated across the genre without a license, in my estimation copyright would say is available to all. You want music to be relatable to something that was before and you want something that is new and fresh. The riddim in ‘Fish Market’ has a lot of basic elements in it. The elements in a thousand different songs are extremely basic and brief and not protectable.
Are you saying both the authors of the ‘Dem Bow’ song and the ‘Fish Market‘ authors have no rights of copy to ‘Dem Bow’ or Reggaeton which was started by El General?
Let’s look at the word interpolate; if one song interpolates another that means it quotes it.
The ‘Fish Market riddim’ contains a bass drum and if you write a song today that contains the same ‘four on the floor’ beat your could say you are interpolating ‘Fish Market,’ but you wouldn’t be interpolating the original aspects of ‘Fish Market’, (because) it’s a bass drum every four beats, that’s not unique to ‘Fish Market’. So you, the creator, may say you are taking that from ‘Fish Market,’ but ‘Fish Market’ has no claim on that (Four on the floor beat).
30 years ago drum machines were built with 16 step sequences in them so you could build a rhythm. You could make selections for every group of four beats and repeat and build a rhythm that way but I would argue that it is far from a certainty to know that anyone one person can know that they are the first. That’s the main challenge (for the case), it is not novel.
Steely and Clevie’s attorney’s recently registered the Copyright for ‘Fish Market’ and ‘Dem Bow’, do they have a problem claiming on a 1989 riddim they just got the copyright for?
Copyright is when you create the work. They would have copyright of the ‘Fish Market,’ which is an original work. US law requires that you have a registered copyright before you can present a lawsuit but the rights are there the whole while but there may be some limitations in court.
Do you see any cases similar to this one?
I don’t see any cases that support it. Once it’s kinda the same then someone says that’s not a perfect enough copy to get a selection and arrangement.
Watch the full interview on WMV YouTube.
