CA’s Reggateon lawsuit from a Paralegal Perspective

This one hits close to home as a huge music lover, and a legal professional.

California central District case Cleveland Constantine Brown, et al. v. Rodney Sebastian Donald’s, et al., made an unprecedented ruling; allowing the case to move forward and be litigated. The case stems from allegations that the source beat for all Reggaeton (the Dembo rhythm) was created by a single called “Fish Market” by Jamaican group Steely and Clevie. The case targets 150 artists, decades of music and basically the entire genre of reggaeton! What’s not noted is the common practice in Jamaican (amongst other foreign music markets) tradition to not only directly sample/ remix/copy lyrics and sounds but to also take direct influence from previous songs and artists, as a building blocks to build the culture and community. Songs are often remixed, remade and heavily sampled without permission, and this is reciprocated by the artists within the community (genre).

If plaintiffs are victorious, it would mean music genres and their elements can be owned, copyrighted and controlled.

In a world where we not only have communities seeking duplicity in sound, but also ai facilitation of mass reproduction and perfection of it; where does that leave artist’s creatively? Can they authentically make the sound they grew up to and love? Or do they need to pay the artists that influence their sound, unless they all working from ground zero creatively?