Music copyright cases often come down to esoteric points of law and musical analysis, with lawyers and academic experts dissecting melodies for signs of similarity. But in one prominent recent case, the deciding factor may simply have been whether a rock band wanted to pursue a grieving mother. Last October, the 2000s-era emo band Yellowcard filed what at the time seemed to be a routine infringement case against Juice WRLD, a fast-rising rapper and singer. The band accused Juice WRLD of copying the melody of its 2006 song “Holly Wood Died” without permission for his breakthrough hit, “Lucid Dreams,” and asked for at least $15 million in damages. But two months later, Juice WRLD, whose real name was Jarad Higgins, died at the age of 21 of an accidental drug overdose, and he was memorialized as a tragic symbol of the SoundCloud rap generation.

Source: New York Times July 27, 2020 20:03 UTC