MUSICAL PLAGIARISM: A TRUE CHALLENGE FOR THE COPYRIGHT LAW.

The interface of law and music has always appeared unnatural. While the law aims to provide certainty and order,music is more often observed as a field which operates in a boundary-less sphere. For that reason,the endeavor to treat purely musical issues with clear,conclusive and predetermined legal rules has been perceived as a fairly complicated task. Nevertheless,while music has become a prospering business,and musical disputes have been revolving around growing amounts of money,the law was required to step in and provide clear standards according to which these disputes should be settled. The courts in USA and UK have established and developed several doctrines intended to set a unified framework for assessing the extent o f similarities between an original work and an allegedly later infringing work. The approach presented in the notable Amstein decision has been reviewed and developed in multiple later cases but has remained relevant even after more than 70 years since its inception. This article explores all prominent approaches evolved to deal with musical plagiarism disputes during the last century,as well as some critical views and innovative ideas in this field. In addition,a novel method for evaluating substantial similarity is suggested,incorporating the overall impression test based on a lay listener comprehension with a statistical predictability analysis,aspiring to reach more accurate,reasonable and just decisions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]