The Unwanted Definition of Music in Law

Connecting two 'incompatible' domains of society: legal certainty and security versus subjective and social musical creations.

Copyright is a legal tool which protects both the author and the public, although the public, the public interest and public domain have lost value to the profitable management of exclusive rights.How to represent, or even prioritise between the interest of the author and its public? A solution may be to redefine the exclusive copyright into an inclusive property right, through defining music and its creative process in law. 

Anna Monnereau’s research looks into the redefinition of music copyright: how to integrate and aid 'melody, rhythm and harmony' interact with traditional legal terminologies? How may copyright fit with creative processes?

The talk will look at different court cases to illustrate how the value of music is approached by legal experts. We may discuss how to define 'substantiality' in artistic contribution, which threshold would be ideal for infringement and whether considering Genres is necessary to accurately protect musical works, taking into considerations legal and artistic limits.