Quoting Biggie and Neil Young, Judge Tosses Copyright Case Against Future

Judge Pacold’s Aug. 25 ruling stated that while both songs shared similar title phrases and themes, the musical compositions were not close enough to allow Gutta’s “When U Think About It” to establish copyright infringement. Pacold also noted that the title phrases “when you think about it” or “when I think about it” lacked uniqueness for copyright protection, likening them to fragments of everyday speech prevalent in popular music.

The judge also cited examples that themes of guns, money, and jewelry were common tropes in rap music before citing examples from the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Machine Gun Funk,” Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M.” and Kanye West’s “Diamonds from Sierra Leone.”

Those weren’t the only musical references Pacold made. She pointed to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and their 1970 hit “Our House” to reject Gutta’s idea of a copyright-protected “core lyric.” “The core lyric, ‘our house is a very, very, very fine house,’ is used to support the entire rest of the song, which uses the house and its constituent elements as the setting for the narrator’s relationship,” said Pacold. “This songwriting technique is not unique to Robinson, nor mid-century Canadian-American bands that feature intricate vocal harmonies. The mere use of a ‘core lyric’ to support a song’s storyline is not protectable element because it is a frequently utilized technique in popular songwriting.”