adamredwoodsMay 2023Recommends
They did a great Tedx talk here, and the person effectively describes the problems that Sheeran has run into: ▶ this video
in “Ed Sheeran Demonstrates How Copyright Is Destroying Musicians” · View on HN
Copyrighting all the melodies to avoid accidental infringement | Damien Riehl | TEDxMinneapolis
Copyrighting all the melodies to avoid accidental infringement | Damien Riehl | TEDxMinneapolis on HackerTube: recommended by 1 Hacker News commenter across 1 month, 2020–2026.
TEDx Talks
Open on YouTubetalk · evergreen
Lawyer and musician Damien Riehl argues that music is math with a finite number of melodies, and describes how he and programmer Noah Rubin generated every possible melody and released them under CC0 to avoid accidental infringement claims.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it as the stunt behind 'copyright every melody' in threads about music copyright, takedowns and AI authorship.
- people recommended it
- 1
- separate months
- 1
- strong recommendations
- 0
- discussed on HN
- 2020–2026
“They did a great Tedx talk here”
What HN commenters said
8 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
alwaJun 2026Cites it
I’m reminded of lawyer Damien Riehl’s (performative) reaction to the Sam Smith infringement decision, back in 2019/2020. He and programmer Noah Rubin algorithmically generated every possible melody (within a certain combinatorial space, in MIDI format as I recall), and purported to release them under CC-0 license [0]. He went on to attract some attention and explain his argument at a regional TEDx event [1]. I seem to recall legal commentators reacting with an eyeroll—apparently judges split much finer hairs than these for a living—but it was a cute stunt. [0] [link] [1] ▶ this video and [link]
in “AI Is Designing Radio Chips That Humans Couldn't Even Imagine” · View on HN
rainbowzootsuitOct 2023Cites it
I hope this has been tested by now, but not sure: Copyrighting all the melodies to avoid accidental infringement | Damien Riehl | TEDxMinneapolis ▶ this video
in “California’s Math Misadventure Is About to Go National” · View on HN
jasrysSep 2023Cites it
1. lots of established law and case law (at least in the US), this is already a well-settled problem and folks have the tools and proper venue to bring infringement claims. Yes, federal copyright infringement litigation is prohibitively expensive for many issues. There is a now a "small claims court" for smaller issues. [1] 2. Those works cannot be copyrighted (at least in the US). [2]. And hey, someone already tried copyrighting every song melody [3] [1]: [link] [2]: [link] [3]: ▶ this video
in “U.S. Copyright Office RFC: Artificial Intelligence and Copyright” · View on HN
conradevMar 2022Cites it
There is also the brute force approach (from 2020) to generate every possible melody and release it under the Creative Commons: ▶ this video
in “US Copyright Office refuses application with AI algorithm named as author” · View on HN
NiceWayToDoITMay 2021Cites it
That is the reason these guys decided to Copyrighting all the melodies to avoid accidental infringement ▶ this video TED talk
in “Piano teacher gets copyright claim for Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata [video]” · View on HN
Show 2 more comments
NiceWayToDoITNov 2020Cites it
Is this beginning of a Copyright trolling campaign or preventing accidental infringement as similar case in music ▶ this video ?
in “Show HN: A 1000 auto-generated hexagonal SVG logos” · View on HN
simcupOct 2020Cites it
You wouldn't even need ML. Iirc there was this guy who coded a script that played every permutation of 12 notes in a 5 minute period and then made all the Melodys public domain. Ianal so I don't know if this would hold up in court, but technically that should invalidate every copyright on Melodys after that point in time. E: ▶ this video found the ted talk
in “YouTube-dl has received a DMCA takedown from RIAA” · View on HN
Topics & tags
Law, policing & justiceMusic performance & songsIdeas & learning (other)melody copyrightcc0infringementmusic lawalgorithmic generation