ABSTRACT
The Ninth Circuit’s decision in Blurred Lines has been heavily criticized for judicial tone deafness to the values and priorities of working artists. This paper argues that pop music is a field with its own norms and symbolic economy – in effect, its own customary law – and thus, for copyright law to meet its constitutional mandate of incentivizing artists, courts hearing music copyright cases must interpret the law in light of music-industry norms. To offer a model for such interpretation, this paper critiques Blurred Lines in light of copyright law as interpreted in the three largest music markets in the US, namely the Second Circuit (New York), Sixth Circuit (Nashville), and Ninth Circuit (LA / West Coast).
Hall, Eliza K, Bring Me the Disco King: Blurred Lines and Porosity in Music Copyright Law (October 24, 2020).
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