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Or alternately, "I sometimes listen to other people's songs and use those ideas to develop my own. In fact sometimes I copy and paste short melodies and then r

Or alternately, "I sometimes listen to other people's songs and use those ideas to develop my own. In fact sometimes I copy and paste short melodies and then rework them." Courts have held that it doesn't apply to music, why do you think different rules apply to code?

deleted 4y ago
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zarzavat 4y ago
Courts are definitely aware of the need to protect the creative process and that no song is truly “original” in all aspects. e.g. the Katy Perry case[0] Songs are different from code, in that the “hook” that makes the money may be only a few seconds long. There are many creative choices that a songwriter/producer can fit into just a few seconds: the harmony, melody, rhythm, lyrics, timbre, effects, ... Whereas for code, the space of creativity is limited by functional considerations. A creative choice is protected by copyright but not all choices that programmers make are creative. Often the choices are limited by the API/interface or by efficiency considerations and it turns out that there’s only one good way to do something. A function may be very intricate, yes, while still containing almost no creative value (e.g. a Vulkan setup function). Music doesn’t have an equivalent to this - the placement of every note is a creative act. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_v._Perry https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_v._Perry