Superb article, covers so much of the ins and outs of rights that it should be required reading for anybody considering starting a music-oriented line of business! IP law, with respect to music, is one of my favorite hobbies to stay current with as much as I can. Also, there are plenty of fascinating historical wrinkles and precedents that are entertaining in some sort.<p>+ Fogerty got sued for sounding like his trademark songwriting style (think AC&#x2F;DC) - on the other hand, Tom Waits sued somebody else (and won) for trying to sound too much like him.<p>+ GoldiBlox tried to sue the Beastie Boys, claiming their derivative work for a song for a commercial (and not getting Sync Rights) would be protected under fair use - when the dust settled, the Beastie Boys took them to the cleaners and GoldiBlox was publicly shamed.<p>+ Recently a political ad used a re-worded version of &quot;Times of Your Life&quot; that mimics the Paul Anka original closely enough that the rights holder is suing them for unfair association and endorsement.<p>These are just a few off the top of my head. Most of the good cases - by good I mean really interesting - get settled out of court. &quot;Blurred Lines&quot; was one I&#x27;m not going to get into because I approve of the outcome and there&#x27;s so many garbage arguments against the result that I simply don&#x27;t have the patience anymore to bother with it.<p>Oh, and this really stood out to me:<p>&gt;<i>It’s estimated that the song “Yesterday” alone has brought in $30 million in royalties over the years.</i><p>Yeah, according to sources I&#x27;ve come across, it&#x27;s the most covered song in the history of songs. That means anybody can go ahead and do a version - but they have to pay the Mechanical Rights. Gotta love it!