ABSTRACT
Musical building blocks, ie, short melodic motifs, simple rhythms, or harmonic devices, must not be monopolized by copyright. A widely accepted principle in theory, its practical implementation faces several challenges. Aggressive litigation practices involving (or supposedly involving) so-called ‘interpolations’, ie, songs that take certain parts of a prior musical work and incorporate them into a new work, have created great uncertainty among musicians and have called into question the principle establishing the unprotectability of musical building blocks …
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Tobias Lantwin, Music, its Building Blocks, and Copyright: Is the Litigation of ‘Interpolations’ Eliminating Creativity?, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice. Published: 6 October 2025.
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