New York 2006

Chapter 68 Plagiarism
"Aunt Sha, are you leaving? I really can't bear to leave you."

"Goodbye, child."

Sarah Brightman kissed Luo Ji on the cheek, then waved her hand gently, turned and left, her movements extremely chic.

To be honest, Luo Ji knew that he was handsome and more popular with girls, especially older women.

But what he didn't expect was that Sarah said she would coach him two days ago, and she actually coached him for two days for free.She didn't leave until she came up with a satisfactory version today.Luo Ji offered to give her guidance fees, but she didn't ask for them.

Producer Ino looked at Luo Ji enviously: "Is she gone?"

"Yes, there is an event waiting for her in the UK."

The recording of the album was almost finished, except for a few Eno songs. Luo Ji returned to the company to find the person in charge of publicity.
The person in charge of publicity was the person from Universal Music who had accompanied him to promote the single before. He was hired by him to work for his own record company. In the future, he would be responsible for the company's record promotions and the connection with Universal Music.

"Contact Universal Music as soon as possible to make arrangements for my album promotion. Remember to urge the bill and see if you can get them to settle my single account in advance."

"Okay, I'll go right away. By the way, this is the latest Billboard singles chart, you can take a look."

Luo Ji took it over and looked at it. To his surprise, his single Viva La Vida was not overtaken by Beyoncé's Irreplaceable this week.It still topped the Billboard singles chart.

Luo Ji was aware of Beyoncé's recent news. She had been promoting her single Irreplaceable on the radio this week. Coupled with the strong recommendation from black radio stations, her radio points would definitely surpass Luo Ji's.If nothing unexpected happened, it would have been difficult for Luo Ji to rank first on the Billboard charts this week, but the unexpected happened.

Then it can only be that Luo Ji's single sales exceeded Beyoncé's by a lot. Luo Ji came to the office and turned on the computer, logged in to the backend and saw that his online sales of singles last week directly reached 34, so according to Calculating a two-to-one ratio between online and physical sales, his sales of singles this week reached 51.

Luo Ji thought about Beyoncé's previous single data. It was very likely that Luo Ji's single sales data this week had more than doubled Beyoncé's.

After all, Viva La Vida was a song that was popular in China in its previous life, and its sales directly crushed the current songs.

If black people can still control radio stations, but single sales must be bought with real money, then can we expect to win four or five consecutive titles on the singles chart?Or you can still hope to be number one on the annual list.

"Logic, something happened." Agent Braun hurried in with a newspaper in his hand.

After Luo Ji finished reading, he stared at his manager Braun and said, "Did you listen?"

"I listened and what the newspaper said was true."

Luo Ji couldn't help but feel heavy when he heard this. This was a huge public relations crisis.

He couldn't help but feel lucky that he had reached a settlement with Viacom and other media companies. If this problem had broken out earlier and Viacom, a large media group, would have suffered, he would probably have shed his skin even if he died.

"Braun, go and call the lawyer Jamie, the musician Eno, and Jeff Busker. Let's discuss what to do."

Agent Braun said that when you are strong, you will meet good people around you. This is obviously wrong. When you are strong, there are also some people who want to get a share of the pie around you.

Luo Ji looked at the newspaper in his hand. The headline read, Logic is not the genius people say he is at all. His Viva La Vida was plagiarized.

"Guitarist Joe Cecchini says Viva la Vid plagiarized a number of his original parts from the instrumental track "If I Could Fly" from his 2004 album Is There Love in Space, and that Logic used it without his permission. Melody, this is a serious infringement and he has filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles court."

"The author personally listened to Joe Cecchini's "If I Could Fly", and the two indeed have a lot of similar melodies. I think this is indeed plagiarism, so the genius character created by Logic must be fake. He is a A total liar.”

The picture accompanying the newspaper was a black photo of Luo Ji, who had just woken up and got out of the RV, yawning, and was photographed by the paparazzi during a promotion.

Plagiarism is a huge blow to your own genius.

"M-Fxxk, this is really speechless." Luo Ji turned on the computer and searched for "If I Could Fly" on the Internet. After listening to it, Luo Ji's anxious mood eased a lot. This song is similar to his "Viva" "La Vida" only has a small section of the melody that is similar, but fortunately it is not similar in large sections.

After Luo Ji reached No. [-] on Billboard, several musicians contacted their managers and said that they had plagiarized their songs. However, these were all private contacts to show off, and there was no concrete evidence.The purpose is nothing more than to take a shot and see if you can get any benefits.

But this Joe Cecchini is different. He directly broke the news to the media and then appealed to the court?

After more than ten minutes, the elite people working for Luo Ji around him arrived, including lawyer Jamie, manager Braun, and musicians Jeff and Eno.Luo Ji first told everyone what happened, and then played Joe Cecchini's "If I Could Fly."Everyone, listen to this.

Musician Eno said: "Melody-wise, this song is indeed similar to your single."

Luo Ji looked calm: "I swear, I have never heard of this song. I have never heard of the name Joe Cecchini at all. My songs are completely original and have nothing to do with him. "

Luo Ji didn't know if Coldplay had sampled Joe Cecchini's songs in his previous life, but in this life, the songs were apocalyptic, and Luo Ji had never heard of his "If I Could Fly".

"Didn't Logic's single pass the approval of the Copyright Office? Why are we still struggling with this issue?"

Lawyer Jamie explained: "Although the song "Viva La Vida" has been approved by the ASCAP Copyright Office and the copyright has been applied for. However, the definition of copyright itself is very vague, and there is no standard for music plagiarism. The formula applies. Therefore, if the song is compared with the files in the music library, as long as there are no similarities in large sections, the copyright application will be approved. Such similar situations in small sections are generally ignored, so it must be decided by the court."

Luo Ji asked in confusion: "What is this Joe Cecchini doing? If he wants money, why doesn't he contact me privately, insist on exposing it to the media, and appeal directly without leaving any room for it?"

Everyone looked at each other and said nothing. Jeff Basker, who is a minority, said: "Maybe he hates you more. He is white and you are a minority. Otherwise, they will usually discuss it privately. If the negotiation fails, Only then will he go to the media and then appeal."

Racial discrimination is a topic that neither Jamie nor Eno, two white people, feel comfortable talking about, so they can only remain silent.

Agent Braun said: "Whether it's racial discrimination or someone behind the scenes. He must be full of malice towards you. Now that the quarrel has broken out, reconciliation is unlikely and the only option is to file a lawsuit."

This was the first time Luo Ji encountered such straightforward malice in his time travel.

Attorney Jamie took out his personal digital assistant and searched it and said, "You don't have to be afraid of litigation."

"why?"

"There is precedent for your situation, and the court has also given a corresponding explanation. A pure octave of thirteen tones, music is a combination of tones produced by the continuous striking of the black and white keys of the piano. Any composer When creating songs, the above semitone permutations will be used. For the purpose of popular music promotion, composers will take into account the public acceptance, the singing ability of ordinary people and the playing skills of ordinary people when creating permutations, so there will be corresponding The permutations and combinations are limited.”

“Because the choice of arrangements and combinations of popular song melodies is limited, it is inevitable that many song parts will be similar. Only if the defendant has substantially copied and used the substantial part of the plaintiff’s work, can it be determined that the defendant has infringed the plaintiff’s work. . But it does not extend to protection in a musical work with a total length of more than 400 bars, and others are not allowed to write music that is similar in several bars."

Musician Eno explained from the perspective of music theory: "One of the essences of pop music is to use limited chords to write infinite songs, and the same chords to write different songs. This is because most listeners only resonate with limited chords. , these are the rules written in our genes. Those are the permutations.”

After hearing this, Luo Ji set the tone: "Jamie, you should form a team as soon as possible to prepare to respond to the lawsuit. Eno, go out and continue making songs."

Luo Ji removed two white people, and now there are only three ethnic minorities left: Braun, a Jew, Jeff Basker, an Indian, and Luo Ji, a Chinese.The three people discussed quietly.

Agent Braun said: "Logic, we don't have to worry about legal responses."

"Ah."

"But the media aspect is a problem."

Jeff Basker spoke: "Logic has a very good impression on the media. He is the representative of the American dream, and the media has always been very good to him."

Braun said: "I know, but the media will not let this opportunity go. Logic's pedigree is a problem in their eyes. They will definitely hype up the topic of plagiarism. Logic will face a serious media public relations campaign. .”

(End of this chapter)