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Interpolation nixes copyright?

03 Sept 2024

Copyright is a tricky subject, especially now that we have the internet and AI in the mix.

If you upload a copyrighted piece of music or video to sites such as YouTube or Facebook then chances are that you'll get a pretty stingy smack on the leg for your arrogance.

Using other people's intellectual property without their permission is a cardinal sin, often punished by a ban, a fine or other censure -- just ask Kim Dotcom.

However, in an incredibly strange move, it seems that the recording industry has decided that its members are now free to use the works of other artists without permission, without license, without compensation and without penalty.

They've replaced the word "piracy" with "inerpolation" and, apparently, that makes everything okay.

Oddly enough, if you or I attempt to "interpolate" someone else's melody, we'll get slapped but now, when the industry itself does this, it's an acceptable act.

What am I talking about?

Watch the video below for an explanation:

If you don't have the time or inclination to watch that, here's the LTDW:

A growing number of new songs/tracks are very much copies of existing copyrighted music but it appears those melodies are being used without payment or even a credit on the track notes.

This is going on despite numerous court cases between recording companies and artists in the past, where even less egregious violations have occurred.

Why have things changed so much? How come these clear copyright infringements haven't drawn law-suits?

Well it's because the music industry seems to have decided to insert the word "interpolate" into its lexicon and use that as defense.

Surely this has to be crazy, especially in light of the fact that music labels are suing AI companies who they claim have infringed their copyright by scraping tracks as learning data -- even though the resulting generative AI melodies are not note-for-note copies.

Perhaps the recording industry has wised up to the fact that all the good melodies have already been created and now, almost *anything* someone comes up with will have at least a passing similarity to a work that has been composed by someone else before. By introducing "interpolation" into the mix, they are now going to be free to recycle all those great old tracks from the past, without fear of copyright claims.

See, all us oldies knew that the best music came from the 1960s and 1970s and now we'll get to enjoy it all again -- perhaps.

Carpe Diem folks!

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