TCSE: Ted Corpus Search Engine

Recorded at	August 10, 2019
Event	TEDxMinneapolis
Duration (min:sec)	16:11
Video Type	TEDx Talk
Words per minute	251.06 very fast
Readability (FK)	62.03 easy
Speaker	Damien Riehl


1	00:04	I'm going to tell you a true story, but instead of the name of the protagonist, think about your favorite artist.
2	00:09	Think about your favorite musician, and think about your favorite song by that musician.
3	00:14	Think about them bringing that song from nothing to something into your ears and bringing you so much joy.
4	00:20	Now think about your favorite musician getting sued, and that lawyer saying, "I represent this group.
5	00:24	I think you heard their song and then you wrote yours.
6	00:27	You violated their copyright."
7	00:28	And imagine your musician saying, "No, it's not true.
8	00:31	I don't think I've ever heard that song.
9	00:33	But even if I did, I certainly wasn't thinking about them when I made my song."
10	00:37	Imagine the case going to trial and a judge saying, "I believe you, I don't think you consciously copied that group.
11	00:42	But what I think did happen is you subconsciously copied them.
12	00:45	You violated the copyright, and you have to pay them a lot of money.”
13	00:49	Think about whether that's fair or just.
14	00:52	This actually happened to George Harrison, the lead guitarist of The Beatles, and the group was The Chiffons, who's had a song "He's so fine, oh so fine."
15	01:00	And George Harrison had a song, "My sweet Lord, oh, sweet Lord."
16	01:05	But what neither George Harrison nor The Chiffons nor the judge, really, nor anybody else had considered, is maybe since the beginning of time, the number of melodies is remarkably finite.
17	01:14	Maybe there are only so many melodies in this world.
18	01:16	And The Chiffons, when they picked their melody, plucked it from that already existing finite melodic data set.
19	01:21	And George Harrison happened to have plucked the same melody from that same finite melodic data set.
20	01:27	This is a different way of thinking about music in a way that judges and lawyers nor musicians have thought about.
21	01:32	Because when those groups have thought about musicians, they think about them drawing from their own creative wellspring, bringing from nothing, something into the world.
22	01:40	They have a blank page upon which they can put their creativity.
23	01:43	That's actually not true.
24	01:44	As George Harrison realized, you have to avoid every song that's ever been written, because if you don't, you get sued.
25	01:50	If you're lucky, you pluck one of those already existing melodies that hasn't been taken.
26	01:54	If you're unlucky, you pluck a melody that's already been taken.
27	01:58	Whether you've heard that song or not, maybe you've never heard it before.
28	02:01	If that happens, if you're lucky, you have a co-songwriter or somebody who says, that new song sounds a lot like that old song.
29	02:07	And you change it before it goes out the door.
30	02:09	Now, if you're unlucky, you don't have somebody telling you that, you release it out in the world, the group hears your song and they sue you for a song maybe that you've never heard before in your life.
31	02:19	You've just stepped on a melodic landmine.
32	02:21	The thing is, this is the world before my colleague, Noah Rubin, and I have started our project.
33	02:27	The world now looks like this.
34	02:29	We filled in every melody that's ever existed and ever can exist.
35	02:33	Every step is going to be a melodic landmine.
36	02:35	And ironically, this is actually trying to help songwriters.
37	02:39	Let me tell you how.
38	02:40	I'm a lawyer.
39	02:42	I've been a lawyer since 2002.
40	02:43	I've litigated copyright cases, I've taught law school copyright cases.
41	02:47	I'm also a musician.
42	02:48	I have a bachelor’s degree in music, I’m a performer, I'm a recording artist, and I also produce records.
43	02:53	I'm also a technologist.
44	02:54	I've been coding since 1985, for the web since '95.
45	02:57	I’ve done cybersecurity, and I also currently design software.
46	03:00	So that puts me right in the middle of a Venn diagram that gives me a few insights that if I were in any one of those areas I might not have had.
47	03:07	And my colleague Noah Rubin, in addition to being one of the smartest people I've ever known, he's also a musician, and he's also one of the most brilliant programmers I've known.
48	03:16	And between our work, we came to a realization that you may have had saying, "You know that new song?
49	03:21	It sounds a lot like this other old song."
50	03:23	And there's a reason for that.
51	03:24	We've discovered that there is only so many melodies, there are only so many notes that can be arranged in so many ways.
52	03:30	And that's different than visual art, where they're an infinite number of brushstrokes, colors and subjects that to accidentally do them is very difficult.
53	03:37	Similarly with language, the English language has 117,000 words in it, so the odds of accidentally writing the same paragraph are next to zero.
54	03:46	In contrast, music doesn't have 117,000 words.
55	03:50	Music has eight notes.
56	03:52	Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do.
57	03:54	One two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
58	03:56	And every popular melody that's ever existed and ever can exist is those eight notes.
59	04:01	Now, it's remarkably small.
60	04:02	I worked in cybersecurity, and I know if I wanted to attack your password and hack your password, one way to do it is to use a computer to really quickly say aaaa. No? Aab, aac, And to keep running until it hits your password.
61	04:14	That's called brute-forcing a password.
62	04:16	So I thought, what if you could brute force melodies?
63	04:19	What if you could say, Do-Do-Do-Do, Do-Do-Do-Re, Do-Do-Do-Mi.
64	04:23	And then exhaust every melody that's ever been.
65	04:25	And the way the computers read music is called MIDI.
66	04:27	And in MIDI it looks like this Do-Do-Do-Do, Do-Do-Do-Re.
67	04:31	So I approached my colleague Noah, I said, Noah, can you write an algorithm to be able to march through every melody that's ever existed and ever can exist?
68	04:38	He said, "Yeah, I could do that."
69	04:40	So at a rate of 300,000 melodies per second, he wrote a program to write to disk every melody that's ever existed and ever can exist.
70	04:49	And in my hand right now is every melody that's ever existed and ever can exist.
71	04:53	And the thing is, to be copyrighted, you don't have to do anything formal.
72	04:57	As soon as it's written to a fixed, tangible medium, this hard drive, it's copyrighted automatically.
73	05:04	Now, this leaves copyright law with a very interesting question, because you think about the world before and songwriters had to avoid every song that's ever been written, in red.
74	05:13	Noah and I have exhausted the entire melodic copyright.
75	05:16	So if you superimpose the songs that have been written, in red, with the songs that haven't yet been written, you have an interesting question: Have we infringed every melody that's ever been?
76	05:25	And in the future, every songwriter that writes in the green spots, have they infringed us?
77	05:30	Now, you might think at this point, are you some sort of copyright troll that's trying to take over the world?
78	05:36	And I would say, no, absolutely not.
79	05:38	In fact, the opposite is true.
80	05:39	Noah and I are songwriters ourselves.
81	05:41	We want to make the world better for songwriters.
82	05:43	So what we've done is we're taking everything and putting it in the public domain.
83	05:47	We're trying to keep space open for songwriters to be able to make music.
84	05:51	And we're not focused on the lyrics, we're not focused on recording, we're focused on melodies.
85	05:55	And the thing is, we're running out of melodies that we can use.
86	05:58	The copyright system is broken and it needs updating.
87	06:01	Some of the insights that we've received as part of our work is that melodies to a computer are just numbers because those melodies have existed since the beginning of time, and we're only just discovering them.
88	06:11	So the melody Do-Re-Mi-Re-Do to a computer is literally 1-2-3-2-1.
89	06:17	So really the number 1-2-3-2-1 is just a number.
90	06:20	It's just math that's been existing since the beginning of time.
91	06:23	And under the copyright laws, numbers are facts.
92	06:26	And under copyright law, facts either have thin copyright, almost no copyright or no copyright at all.
93	06:32	So maybe if these numbers have existed since the beginning of time where we're just plucking them out, maybe melodies are just math, which is just facts, which maybe are not copyrightable.
94	06:41	Maybe if somebody's suing over a melody alone, not lyrics, not recordings, but just the melody alone, maybe those cases go away.
95	06:48	Maybe they get dismissed.
96	06:49	Now you might say, well, what constitutes a melody?
97	06:52	And we were initially going to take the entire piano keyboard and be able to do the entire keyboard.
98	06:56	But we thought, let's focus on the vocal range, which is actually two octaves.
99	07:00	And then we thought, no, actually we're thinking about pop music, which is the only thing that makes money that people sue over.
100	07:06	So we looked at musicologists, and they have debated what is a motif, a short melody versus a longer melody.
101	07:11	And we landed with 12 notes.
102	07:13	And then we superimposed that number with songs that have either been litigated or threatened to be litigated.
103	07:18	For example, The Chiffons had “He’s so fine, oh so fine.”
104	07:21	Versus “My sweet Lord, Oh, sweet Lord.”
105	07:26	Eight notes.
106	07:28	Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. (Laughter)
107	07:32	Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.
108	07:34	That's so close.
109	07:35	(Laughter)
110	07:37	"Oh, I won't back down.
111	07:40	No, I won't back down."
112	07:44	Versus “Won’t you stay with me 'cause you're all I need."
113	07:52	Ten notes.
114	07:54	Doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo.
115	07:59	Versus Katy Perry's Doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo, doo.
116	08:05	Last two notes are different.
117	08:07	The jury didn't care, 2.8 million dollars.
118	08:09	Audience: Ooh. DR: So every song within that is within our parameters of eight notes up, major and minor, 12 notes across.
119	08:16	So what you see in red is every popular melody that's ever existed and ever can exist.
120	08:21	So all Noah and I had to do is to be able to exhaust that remarkably finite, remarkably small data set.
121	08:27	There aren't that many of them.
122	08:29	Eight up, 12 across.
123	08:31	You might say, Damien, songs are more than just melodies, there's chords too.
124	08:35	And I would totally agree with you because it turns out that that's even easier.
125	08:38	In 2017, Peter Burkimsher exhausted every chord.
126	08:41	You can download it today in GitHub.
127	08:42	We're instead focused not on lyrics, not on recordings, we're focused on melodies.
128	08:47	And the thing is, we're running out because the song isn't just a single melody, but there are many parts to a song, and each part of that song can have many motifs and melodies within it.
129	08:56	So each song can have up to ten melodies and motifs.
130	08:59	So SoundCloud, which is a way that musicians can upload to this website and distribute their work, SoundCloud currently has 200 million songs, and the number of open spaces is shrinking exponentially.
131	09:09	Because every basement musician is recording, and they’re recording and they’re uploading it to YouTube, to Spotify and to SoundCloud.
132	09:16	And they are exhausting the entire mathematical data set.
133	09:19	They're exhausting the open spaces.
134	09:21	until there are not going to be any more left.
135	09:23	What Noah and I have done is we're trying to preserve those spots that are left.
136	09:27	We're trying to be able to take those green spots, put them in the public domain so that other people can be able to make them.
137	09:33	Because we're running out.
138	09:34	The thing is we're just getting started because if you go to our website, AllTheMusic.info, you can not only download all the music we've made, which is a lot, you can also download the program that we used, and we're giving away the code for free so you can expand upon our work.
139	09:48	Something I didn't tell you is that those eight notes that we did, as we speak right now, we've expanded that to 12 notes.
140	09:54	So instead of just the white notes, now we've got the black notes, too.
141	09:57	So we're covering jazz, classical music, and we think it's only a matter of time before somebody is going to expand that to do the entire piano keyboard and take our 12 notes and expand it to 100 with every rhythmic variation and every chordal variation till our remarkably finite mathematical data set gets further exhausted.
142	10:14	This is going to happen.
143	10:16	And the thing is, how is the law going to respond?
144	10:18	Because the thing is, we're not focused on somebody copying a previous person's melody.
145	10:22	We're focused instead on somebody accidentally copying a song that they either have heard and forgotten about or have never heard before in their lives.
146	10:31	And the chance of landing in an open spot is remarkably small, and it's shrinking every day.
147	10:36	And the thing is, the odds of you as a songwriter getting sued are remarkably high.
148	10:40	And if you get sued, you're going want to think about what a judge or a jury is going to think about, and they are going to think about two questions.
149	10:47	The first question is: Is that previous songwriter’s copyright valid?
150	10:51	Do they even have a copyright in that previous song?
151	10:53	Second question is: Did you infringe their copyright?
152	10:56	So to the first question, maybe the answer to that is no, because if they're suing just over the melody, maybe that melody's existed since the beginning of time.
153	11:03	Maybe there are only so many notes that are math, that are not copyrightable.
154	11:07	To the second question did you infringe, there are two sub questions.
155	11:11	The first question is: Did you access, did you hear that previous song?
156	11:14	And if so, are those two songs substantially similar?
157	11:17	Now the first question: Did you access or hear that previous song?
158	11:20	That's got a lot of problems, it's really problematic.
159	11:22	And the reason for that is there are only a few cases where access is crystal clear.
160	11:27	For example, John Fogerty was alleged to have infringed John Fogerty when he was part of Creedence.
161	11:32	So clearly John Fogerty had access to John Fogerty songs.
162	11:35	On the opposite end of the spectrum, on no access, what if a baby were to sing into their toy?
163	11:40	And again, as soon as the toy recorder happens, it's copyrighted automatically, it's a fixed, tangible medium.
164	11:45	So if a baby starts singing Da da da da da, da da da da da da.
165	11:49	And a year later, Taylor Swift sings, "I stay up too late.
166	11:52	Got nothing in my brain."
167	11:53	Clearly, Taylor Swift has not infringed that baby because Taylor Swift has not heard that baby's recording, OK?
168	11:59	Clear case of no access.
169	12:01	But the thing is, almost none of the cases are that clear.
170	12:04	What if there's a question mark as to whether the second person heard it or not?
171	12:08	Maybe they heard it, maybe they didn't.
172	12:10	Maybe they heard it and forgot it.
173	12:11	Maybe they subconsciously infringed.
174	12:13	These are all what the law calls fact questions.
175	12:15	And the thing is, almost every copyright case that comes out is a fact question.
176	12:19	Almost never is it as clear as John Fogerty or as clear as Taylor Swift.
177	12:23	Almost every case is that middle section, that fact question.
178	12:26	And the hard part about fact questions is they're notoriously hard to resolve at an early stage in the case, because when you think about a life span of a lawsuit, it starts out as a cease and desist letter.
179	12:36	You need to pay me or I'll sue you.
180	12:38	It goes forward and it's going to take years.
181	12:40	And the thing about fact questions, they don't get resolved until the end of that process.
182	12:44	That's what happened to George Harrison.
183	12:46	After trial, the judge said, "I think you subconsciously infringed."
184	12:49	So if you're a songwriter who's never heard a melody before, but you are approached by somebody saying you stole their song, what are you going to do?
185	12:56	Sam Smith was approached by Tom Petty.
186	12:58	Tom Petty said, “My song ‘Won’t Back Down’ sounds like your ‘Stay with Me.’”
187	13:02	Sam Smith reportedly responded, "Hey, man, I've never heard your song before.
188	13:06	That was written before I was born."
189	13:08	But if I was in Sam Smith’s position, I would look at this long road ahead of me and the prospect at the end of a judge saying, you know, "I think you subliminally infringed."
190	13:17	So what are you going to do?
191	13:18	It's not surprising that Sam Smith made Tom Petty a co-songwriter, giving Tom Petty a lot of his songwriting royalties.
192	13:25	Radiohead had a song, "And I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo."
193	13:29	The Hollies said, "Hey, that sounds like our song."
194	13:32	They made them co-songwriters Lana Del Rey ironically, had a song that sounds like "Creep."
195	13:36	Offered to make them co-songwriters, reportedly.
196	13:38	Katy Perry had a song that she testified and all of her co-songwriters testified, "I have never heard that previous song before in my life" and the other side didn't dispute it.
197	13:48	They say, "We have no evidence that they actually heard the song, but we did have three-point-some million YouTube views, so they must have heard it."
198	13:55	A jury agreed with them and Katy Perry was on the hook for 2.8 million dollars.
199	13:59	Now, if you are an accused songwriter who's never heard the song before, that is an untenable position.
200	14:04	How are you going to avoid getting shaken down for something that you may have never heard?
201	14:08	Shouldn't there be an easier way?
202	14:10	Shouldn't there be a way that early on in that process for a judge or a lawyer to be able to have an early evidentiary hearing to say maybe melodies are math, which are facts which are not copyrightable.
203	14:20	Or maybe there's no evidence showing that this later person has heard the earlier person's song.
204	14:24	Maybe the idea of subconscious infringement goes by.
205	14:27	Now if you are a songwriter, you should really care about this because each day you are walking in a minefield that you didn't even know was there.
206	14:36	You’re trying to avoid every song, whether you’ve heard that song or not.
207	14:40	And Noah and I, we're trying to preserve those open spaces so that you can be able to make the music in the public domain in a way that you've always thought it.
208	14:48	The question is not: “Have I made this new song or not?”
209	14:50	Because no song is new.
210	14:51	Noah and I have exhausted the data set.
211	14:53	The real question: "Is my song a green song, or is my song a red song?"
212	14:57	Or perhaps the real question is: Should you have the blank page that everybody thinks is there in the first place?
213	15:03	If you're a judge or a lawyer, think about having an early evidentiary hearing to be able to take the evidenciary burden from the defendant to prove negative that they've never heard that song and bring it back to the plaintiff where it belongs, that they have to prove that the other side heard the song.
214	15:18	And they have to prove that that melody is more than just a fact.
215	15:21	And if you are a song lover, you should really care about this because the current state has a chilling effect on songwriters.
216	15:27	Something that I haven't told you is that George Harrison, after the trial, he stopped writing music for a while.
217	15:33	He told "Rolling Stone" that, after the trial, "It's hard to start writing again because every song I hear sounds like something else."
218	15:39	There's a reason for that, George.
219	15:41	Because there are only so many notes.
220	15:42	There are only so many melodies.
221	15:44	And the open spaces are running out exponentially.
222	15:48	Now, ironically, Noah and I have made all the melodies and put them into the public domain in an effort to try to give songwriters more freedom, to be able to make more and more music and less fear of accidentally stepping on musical landmines.
223	16:01	Noah and I have made all the music to be able to allow future songwriters to make all of their music.
224	16:10	Thank you.
225	16:11	(Applause)

Damien Riehl: Why all melodies should be free for musicians to use