The world is a medium that keeps on evolving for human beings. Not only the world, but people’s way of thinking is also evolving throughout time. What may come out of our incredible mind could be something big, something profitable, and something others would even consider as art. Those previous sentences are what people would refer to as intellectual property. Intellectual property is a part of property rights that is derived from our brain and our physical work, it is considered as an intangible asset.1 Intellectual property has been a debatable subject among others, especially among creative workers such as visual artists, graphic designers, movie directors, photographers, authors, singers and even architects. It is a debatable subject because where do you exactly draw the line between being inspired by or plagiarizing someone else’s work? Though it is protected by the laws of Indonesia, the scope of law regarding intellectual properties that are originated by these amazing thinkers is still too vague. This may become a huge concern for creative workers, because you may not know whether someone has been profiting off works that you produced yet you’re not getting any revenue from it, or worse, someone else claimed your work and not crediting you in any sort.
According to Law Number 28 of 2014 about Copyright, copyright is an exclusive right that is owned by the initial creator that automatically arises according to a declarative principle after a certain creation was physically made without reducing restrictions in accordance with statutory provisions. Copyright is a legal right granted to the creator of original works in literature, art, music, or other intellectual creations, allowing the creator to control the use of the work, whether through reproduction, distribution, or publication (Stewart:1989)2. The protection provided by this law is derived from moral and economic aspects of the creation itself. Morally, this law allows creators to be acknowledged as the initial creator of their own work, giving creators the rights to modify their creations or not allowing their creations to be modified by others, this law also allows creators to disclose or not to disclose their work to the public, and allows creator to withdraw the work from circulation while respecting the rights acquired by others. Economically, this law gives creators the right to obtain economic benefits from the use of their work, such as through royalties, licenses, sales, and other forms of commercialization, and allows creators to reproduce, translate, adapt, distribute, display, or rent the work to the public.
The Indonesian Copyright Law protects a wide range of creative expressions in the industry, which are literary works, such as books and pamphlets, artistic works, such as paintings, sculptures, and photographs, musical works and arrangements, with or without text, dramatic, dance, and choreographic works, cinematographic works (films), computer programs and data compilations, architectural works, and lastly translations, adaptations, arrangements, and other modifications of original works. This law is very crucial for creative workers to be recognized and to receive compensation for their works. It is paramount for numerous industries in the creative field, from entertainment and publishing to technology and architecture.
A rather head-turning case involved the international pop star Dua Lipa’s 2020 mega-hit song titled “Levitating.” The singer was accused of plagiarizing from a reggae band, Artikal Sound System’s song titled “Live Your Life” released in 2017. The band claimed that Dua Lipa took a core part of their song. In their March 2022 lawsuit, they said that the song was too similar to theirs that it was “highly unlikely that ‘Levitating’ was created independently.” The case was eventually dismissed by the court, resulting in Dua Lipa emerging victorious. U.S. District Judge, Sunshine Skyes, declared that Artikal Sound System has failed to argue that the writers of “Levitating” had access to “Live Your Life” they alleged she copied and that the link between Dua Lipa’s co-writer and Artikel Sound System was too weak to prove that Levitating was inspired by the plaintiff’s song3. The case highlights the complexities and challenges in proving copyright infringement in the music industry.
If this lawsuit occurs in Indonesia, we can mainly refer to Law Number 28 of 2014 about Copyright as this law protects original works, including musical arrangements and compositions, and also outlines the rights of copyright holders. As previously stated, this instrument protects the rights of the copyright holders which arises from the creation itself. As the writer of “Levitating,” Dua Lipa, alongside her co-writer, Stephen Kozmeniuk, holds the copyright of the song. As stated on Article 9 of the law, Dua Lipa has the economic right to release, rearrange, distribute her song however she sees fit. It is also worth noting that she will hold economic rights for as long as she may live and then her heir will own said rights for seventy years after her demise. However, according to Article 5, every copyright owner, including Artikel Sound System, has a moral right to defend their creation when unlawful distortion, mutilation, or modification happens against them. Thus, Artikel Sound System’s lawsuit against Dua Lipa’s Levitating can be understood. Therefore, Artikal Sound System would accuse Dua Lipa of violating Article 113 Paragraph 2 of Law Number 28 of 2014 about Copyright. If proven guilty, Dua Lipa along with other writers of the song subject to a penalty of imprisonment for up to 3 years and/or a fine of up to Rp500,000,000.
In this lawsuit, The band members of Artikal Sound System, Chris Montague and Fabian Acuna, Adam Kampf, and Christopher Cope, quoting from Miami New Times, claimed that “The song in question uses a string of two-note chord stabs that some listeners (and evidently Artikal Sound System's band members) have found to be similar to the chorus of "Levitating." The two songs briefly utter the phrase "all night" in comparable rhythms as well before diverging in lyrical structure.”4 Though the band did not describe any other similarities between two songs, there are several similarities between “Levitating” and “Live Your Life”:
1. The key: Both songs are in the key of B minor in a four-four time signature with similar speeds.
2. Timing: “Live Your Life” is slightly faster at 103 beats per minute (bpm) while “Levitating” is slightly slower at 98 bpm.
3. Rhythm of the chorus: Both songs utilize the Charleston rhythm, a pattern of dotted eighth notes followed by a sixteenth note and a rest.
4. Chord progression: The songs share a similar chord progression; both contain a Bm7-F#m7-Em7 progression. However, “Levitating” ends the chord progression back on Bm7 whereas “Live Your Life” stays on Em7 for the fourth chord in the progression. This progression is found in the instrumental portions of “Levitating.” The chords in the hook are not seventh chords. Thus, the progression in the hook is Bm-F#m-Em.
5. Melody of the chorus: The vocal melodies of both songs are also quite similar with the notes in the Charleston rhythm falling on an E. The melodies differ towards the end of the vocal phrases in the choruses most evident where Dua Lipa sings “come on dance with me, I’m levitating.”
6. Lyrics and rhyme: There’s a weak similarity between the words and rhyme: “all night” and “sunrise” in “Live Your Life” versus “moonlight,” “starlight,” and “all night” in “Levitating.”
Though the case ended up getting dismissed, U.S. District Judge Sunshine Skyes offered the band a chance to refile their case in two weeks, but Artikal Sound System happened to decide to lift their lawsuit against Dua Lipa and the other “Levitating” song-writers.6 If Dua Lipa and her crew was proven guilty of plagiarizing, Artikal Sound System may be entitled for their name to be written on the credits of “Levitating” and/or be receiving royalties from the song, splitted between Dua Lipa and Artikal Sound System. Dua Lipa may also have to pull the song from the public circulation. A similar case has also happened a few years prior to the band Queen and David Bowie when they asked to split the royalty revenue and to be credited in rapper, Vanilla Ice’s song “Ice Ice Baby” as the rapper apparently plagiarized their song titled “Under Pressure” by using the exact bassline chord at the beginning of his song.
Despite the similarities that was pointed out by Artikal Sound System and many others in the internet when this lawsuit broke out, Dua Lipa and other writers of the song claimed they never heard the song “Live Your Life” before nor during the process of lyric-writing and producing “Levitating”, Artikal Sound System also failed to provide more evidences that the defendants had listened to the song.