Parametric isolation in musical works copyright infringement

In cases of copyright infringement of musical works by reproduction, courts in the UK have increasingly relied on forensic musicological analysis by experts. This has invited courts to engage in an incomplete form of reasoning, which this thesis defines as “parametric isolation”. Having analysed and identified musical elements by musical parameters (such as pitch, rhythm, harmony), courts falsely make general conclusions about the music based solely on scrutinising musical elements while they are isolated from their contexts. While studying musical parameters separately is often helpful in musical analysis, the proper objective of such parametric analysis should be to assist and inform the study of the relevant musical passage as a whole. Parametric isolation causes the court to miss the wood for the trees. In setting up the concept of parametric isolation, its flaw is demonstrated by psychological studies and its emergence as a dominant mode of reasoning in British jurisprudence over the last century is illustrated. This culminates in a detailed case study of <em>Sheeran v Chokri</em> (2022), arguing that parametric isolation contributed to the court’s failure to infer copying. The central claim of the thesis recommends a doctrinal refinement to Lord Millett’s copyright infringement test in <em>Designers Guild Ltd v Russell Williams (Textiles) Ltd</em> (2000). As part of the argument, significant distinctions are made to articulate the legal concept of originality more sharply. Furthermore, it is also argued that parametric isolation should play no role in any part of the copyright infringement test.