Copyright Law, Music, and Creativity

Abstract

Copyright law is struggling to properly and accurately judge modern music. While technological advances in the last 50-years have greatly contributed to the difficulty of the law’s task, the real culprit behind the issue is an outdated conceptualization of the creative process and creativity as a whole. After examining the historical and cultural context surrounding the formation of copyright law, it becomes clear that the intra-psychic model of creativity was and is the model being used. The use of this model has led to an over-emphasis on author-centric and formalistic approaches when dealing with infringement cases in music, and both artists and society are suffering because of this. However, experts in psychology have left behind the intra-psychic model in favor of the much more comprehensive systems model. The systems model incorporates concepts like cultural and social influences on the creative mind in order to present a more accurate view of the creative process. The systems model, or some other more accurate conception of creativity, could help the law establish methods for dealing with infringement that support copyright law’s most important goal; protecting innovation in the arts.