This most recent New Yorker has a very interesting piece in the "Talk of the Town" section about the influence of African pop music on the King of Pop. In 1972, Manu Dibango released an album with the song "Soul Makossa". A decade later, Michael Jackson released "Thriller" on which the second track, "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" borrows a few syllables from "Soul Makossa" (Dibango sings "Ma-mako, ma-ma-ssa, mako-makossa" while Jackson sings "Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa"). In 2007, Rihanna released "Don't Stop the Music", which credits Jackson and closes with the same syllables as "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'". Dibango took Jackson and, more recently, Rihanna, to court for copyright infringement. A settlement was reached with Jackson, but the Rihanna case is ongoing.
All this reminded me of one of my favorite Econ Talk episodes- where Roberts interviews Michele Boldrin. A key point that Boldrin makes is that while our argument for copyrights is that if musicians are not given the monopoly rents from their copyrighted work, they will not produce- in practice we often give too much protection since the opportunity costs for these musicians is usually quite low. Would Dibango not have put "Soul Makossa" with the single he wrote for the Comeroon soccer team if he didn't know of the royalties he'd get from a artist who, ten years later, used a similar 10 syllables?
All this reminded me of one of my favorite Econ Talk episodes- where Roberts interviews Michele Boldrin. A key point that Boldrin makes is that while our argument for copyrights is that if musicians are not given the monopoly rents from their copyrighted work, they will not produce- in practice we often give too much protection since the opportunity costs for these musicians is usually quite low. Would Dibango not have put "Soul Makossa" with the single he wrote for the Comeroon soccer team if he didn't know of the royalties he'd get from a artist who, ten years later, used a similar 10 syllables?
Continue reading Michael Jackson and Copyright Law.
