To understand the ethical, commercial, aesthetic dimensions of AI in music andncopyright law today, we must consider the history of copyright law and popular musicnin the United States. Music copyright law was established in 1831 when sheet musicnbecame protected under federal law. During this time (the antebellum period and thenexponential growth of slavery), blackface minstrelsy emerged as the first commercialnform of American popular music in both live performance and through sheet musicnpublications. Because blackface minstrelsy was founded upon the exploitation andnnegation of Black people primarily enslaved in America, they themselves may haveneither been considered property or had limited recourse to claim property fornthemselves. Music copyright law and property laws in general have continued tondevelop out of this racialized context, though this history is often left out of litigation.nIn this course will revisit the history of copyright law from the inaugural Copyright Actnof 1790 through the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (1998) and Music ModernizationnAct. In doing so we will interrogate the function and form of music copyright law today,nwhile also considering ethical and economic questions and power dynamics (includingnrace) around how the technologies that facilitate (e.g., phonograph recordings andnartificial intelligence) and aesthetics that make up popular music are protected (or not)nunder copyright law (and why).
3 units · Letter or Credit/No Credit · GER: WAY-ER
To understand the ethical, commercial, aesthetic dimensions of AI in music andncopyright law today, we must consider the history of copyright law and popular musicnin the United States. Music copyright law was established in 1831 when sheet musicnbecame protected under federal law. During this time (the antebellum period and thenexponential growth of slavery), blackface minstrelsy emerged as the first commercialnform of American popular music in both live performance and through sheet musicnpublications. Because blackface minstrelsy was founded upon the exploitation andnnegation of Black people primarily enslaved in America, they themselves may haveneither been considered property or had limited recourse to claim property fornthemselves. Music copyright law and property laws in general have continued tondevelop out of this racialized context, though this history is often left out of litigation.nIn this course will revisit the history of copyright law from the inaugural Copyright Actnof 1790 through the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (1998) and Music ModernizationnAct. In doing so we will interrogate the function and form of music copyright law today,nwhile also considering ethical and economic questions and power dynamics (includingnrace) around how the technologies that facilitate (e.g., phonograph recordings andnartificial intelligence) and aesthetics that make up popular music are protected (or not)nunder copyright law (and why).
Offered in Autumn 2026 at Stanford University.