Manatt’s Robert Jacobs, co-chair of the firm’s entertainment, sports and media litigation practice, was interviewed by the Daily Journal for an article on the difficulties of advising musician defendants in copyright infringement cases.
Advising clients on infringement claims has become more challenging as judges wrestle with gauging the similarity between two musical works, noted the publication. Musical arrangement and singular selections are just two of the many areas where there is a lack of clarity.
“But if you look at different kinds of creative material—television scripts, film scripts, things like that—[judges are] often willing to scrutinize those sorts of works. It’s a different medium, but there’s intellectually no reason why there’s such a big difference,” said Jacobs.