Bright Lines: Musicologists Police the Boundaries of Copyright Law (Variety)

Variety: Bright Lines: Musicologists Police the Boundaries of Copyright Law. “Todd Decker is a music historian who chairs the music department at Washington University in St. Louis. A few years ago, a local attorney called the department looking for help on a case. The lawyer represented Flame, a little-known Christian rapper who claimed that Katy Perry had ripped off his song in her 2014 smash hit ‘Dark Horse.’ Decker had never worked on a lawsuit before, but he volunteered his services as a forensic musicologist — an expert who parses melodies and chord structures to determine if two songs are ‘substantially similar.’”