Why All Melodies Should Be Free for Musicians to Use | Damien Riehl | TED

Traductor: Bianca Roșu Revisor: Sebastian Betti

I'm going to tell you a true story,

Os voy a contar una historia real,

but instead of the name of the protagonist,

pero en lugar del nombre del protagonista,

think about your favorite artist.

pensad en un artista.

Think about your favorite musician,

Pensad en vuestro músico favorito,

and think about your favorite song by that musician.

y pensad en la canción favorita de ese músico.

Think about them bringing that song from nothing to something into your ears

Pensad en cómo de la nada crean una canción

and bringing you so much joy.

que os trae mucha felicidad.

Now think about your favorite musician getting sued, and that lawyer saying,

Ahora imaginad a vuestro músico demandado y al abogado diciendo,

"I represent this group.

“Represento este grupo.

I think you heard their song and then you wrote yours.

Has escuchado su canción y después has escrito la tuya.

You violated their copyright."

Has infringido su copyright”.

And imagine your musician saying, "No, it's not true.

Vuestro músico dice, “No, no es cierto.

I don't think I've ever heard that song.

Creo que nunca he escuchado esa canción.

But even if I did,

Y aunque lo hiciera,

I certainly wasn't thinking about them when I made my song."

no estaba pensando en ellos cuando estaba creando la mía”.

Imagine the case going to trial and a judge saying, "I believe you,

Imaginad el caso llevado a juicio y un juez diciendo,

“Te creo,

I don't think you consciously copied that group.

no creo que les copiaste conscientemente.

But what I think did happen is you subconsciously copied them.

Pero creo que les copiaste de forma subconsciente.

You violated the copyright, and you have to pay them a lot of money.”

Has violado el copyright, y tendrás que pagar mucho dinero”.

Think about whether that's fair or just.

Pensad si es justo.

This actually happened to George Harrison, the lead guitarist of The Beatles,

Pues esto le pasó a George Harrison, el guitarrista de Los Beatles,

and the group was The Chiffons,

y el grupo fue The Chiffons,

who's had a song "He's so fine, oh so fine."

que tenían una canción llamada “He’s so fine, oh so fine.”

And George Harrison had a song,

Y George Harrison tenía,

"My sweet Lord, oh, sweet Lord."

“My sweet Lord, oh, sweet Lord”.

But what neither George Harrison nor The Chiffons nor the judge, really,

Pero lo que realmente George Harrison ni The Chiffons ni el juez

nor anybody else had considered, is maybe since the beginning of time,

ni nadie consideró es que, quizás desde el comienzo de los tiempos,

the number of melodies is remarkably finite.

el número de melodías es notablemente finito.

Maybe there are only so many melodies in this world.

Quizás no hay muchas melodías en este mundo.

And The Chiffons, when they picked their melody,

Y The Chiffons, cuando eligieron su melodía,

plucked it from that already existing finite melodic data set.

la cogieron de esa base ya existente de melodías finitas.

And George Harrison happened to have plucked the same melody

Y George Harrison por casualidad eligió la misma melodía

from that same finite melodic data set.

del repertorio de melodías finitas.

This is a different way of thinking about music

Esto es una manera diferente de ver la música

in a way that judges and lawyers nor musicians have thought about.

de una manera que los abogados, jueces y cantantes no han visto.

Because when those groups have thought about musicians,

Porque cuando esos grupos pensaron en músicos,

they think about them drawing from their own creative wellspring,

pensaron en ellos cogiendo de su propia fuente creativa,

bringing from nothing, something into the world.

trayendo de la nada algo al mundo.

They have a blank page upon which they can put their creativity.

Tienen una página en blanco donde pueden ser creativos.

That's actually not true.

Esto no es cierto.

As George Harrison realized,

George Harrison se percató

you have to avoid every song that's ever been written,

de que tienes que evitar cada canción que ha sido escrita,

because if you don't, you get sued.

porque si no, te demandan.

If you're lucky, you pluck one of those already existing melodies

Si tienes suerte, escoges una de esas canciones existentes

that hasn't been taken.

sin elegir.

If you're unlucky, you pluck a melody that's already been taken.

Si no tienes suerte, coges una canción ya elegida.

Whether you've heard that song or not, maybe you've never heard it before.

Si has escuchado una canción o no, igual no la has escuchado antes

If that happens, if you're lucky,

Si eso pasa, tienes suerte,

you have a co-songwriter or somebody who says,

tienes un co-compositor o alguien que te dice,

that new song sounds a lot like that old song.

que esa nueva canción se parece a una vieja.

And you change it before it goes out the door.

Y la cambias antes de que salga.

Now, if you're unlucky, you don't have somebody telling you that,

Ahora, si no tienes suerte, no tienes a nadie que te lo diga,

you release it out in the world,

la sacas al mundo,

the group hears your song and they sue you

el grupo escucha la canción y te demanda

for a song maybe that you've never heard before in your life.

por una canción que quizás no has escuchado en tu vida.

You've just stepped on a melodic landmine.

Has pisado un campo de minas melódico.

The thing is, this is the world before my colleague, Noah Rubin, and I

Así era el mundo antes de que mi compañero, Noah Rubin, y yo

have started our project.

empezáramos nuestro proyecto.

The world now looks like this.

El mundo es ahora así.

We filled in every melody that's ever existed and ever can exist.

Hemos llenado cada canción existente y por existir.

Every step is going to be a melodic landmine.

Cada paso es un campo de minas melódico.

And ironically, this is actually trying to help songwriters.

E irónicamente, esto está intentando ayudar a los compositores.

Let me tell you how.

Dejadme que os explique.

I'm a lawyer.

Soy abogado.

I've been a lawyer since 2002.

Soy abogado desde 2002.

I've litigated copyright cases, I've taught law school copyright cases.

He llevado casos de copyright, los he enseñado en la universidad.

I'm also a musician.

También soy músico.

I have a bachelor’s degree in music, I’m a performer,

Tengo una carrera en música, actúo,

I'm a recording artist, and I also produce records.

Tengo discos y también los produzco.

I'm also a technologist.

También soy tecnólogo.

I've been coding since 1985, for the web since '95.

Llevo codificando desde 1985, online desde el 95.

I’ve done cybersecurity, and I also currently design software.

He hecho ciberseguridad, y actualmente diseño software.

So that puts me right in the middle of a Venn diagram

Esto me coloca en medio de un diagrama de Venn

that gives me a few insights that if I were in any one of those areas

que me da puntos de vista que si estuviera solo en uno de esos campos

I might not have had.

no hubiera tenido.

And my colleague Noah Rubin,

Y mi compañero Noah Rubin,

in addition to being one of the smartest people I've ever known,

además de ser una de las personas más inteligentes que conozco,

he's also a musician,

también es músico,

and he's also one of the most brilliant programmers I've known.

y también es uno de los mejores programadores que conozco.

And between our work,

Y en nuestro trabajo,

we came to a realization that you may have had saying,

nos dimos cuenta de que habréis dicho,

"You know that new song?

“¿Conoces esta canción?

It sounds a lot like this other old song."

Suena parecido a una canción vieja”.

And there's a reason for that.

Y hay un motivo para eso.

We've discovered that there is only so many melodies,

Hemos descubierto que hay melodías,

there are only so many notes that can be arranged in so many ways.

que hay notas que se pueden ordenar de muchas maneras.

And that's different than visual art,

Y es diferente al arte visual,

where they're an infinite number of brushstrokes, colors and subjects

donde hay un número infinito de brochadas, colores y temas

that to accidentally do them is very difficult.

que hacerlos de forma accidental es complicado.

Similarly with language,

Lo mismo con la lengua,

the English language has 117,000 words in it,

el inglés tiene 117.000 palabras,

so the odds of accidentally writing the same paragraph are next to zero.

así que las probabilidades de escribir el mismo párrafo son casi cero.

In contrast,

De lo contrario,

music doesn't have 117,000 words.

la música no tiene 117 000 palabras.

Music has eight notes.

La música tiene ocho notas.

Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do.

Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, Do.

One two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho.

And every popular melody that's ever existed and ever can exist

Y cada canción popular existente y por existir

is those eight notes.

tiene esas ocho notas.

Now, it's remarkably small.

Eso es muy poco.

I worked in cybersecurity,

He trabajado en ciberseguridad,

and I know if I wanted to attack your password and hack your password,

y sé que si quisiera atacar y hackear tu contraseña,

one way to do it is to use a computer to really quickly say aaaa. No?

una forma de hacerlo sería usar tu ordenador y poner aaaa, ¿no?

Aab, aac,

Aab, aac, ...

And to keep running until it hits your password.

Y así hasta dar con la contraseña.

That's called brute-forcing a password.

A esto se le llama fuerza bruta.

So I thought, what if you could brute force melodies?

¿Y si pudieras usar la fuerza bruta con las canciones?

What if you could say, Do-Do-Do-Do, Do-Do-Do-Re,

Y si pudieras decir, Do-Do-Do-Do, Do-Do-Do-Re,

Do-Do-Do-Mi.

Do-Do-Do-Mi.

And then exhaust every melody that's ever been.

Y agotar todas las canciones que han existido.

And the way the computers read music is called MIDI.

Y los ordenadores leen música a través de MIDI.

And in MIDI it looks like this Do-Do-Do-Do, Do-Do-Do-Re.

Y en MIDI es así Do-Do-Do-Do, Do-Do-Do-Re.

So I approached my colleague Noah,

Así que le dije a mi compañero Noah,

I said, Noah, can you write an algorithm

Noah, ¿podrías escribir un algoritmo

to be able to march through every melody that's ever existed

donde podrías recorrer cada canción existente

and ever can exist?

y por existir?

He said, "Yeah, I could do that."

Me dijo, “Sí, podría hacerlo.”

So at a rate of 300,000 melodies per second,

En un ratio de 300 000 canciones por segundo,

he wrote a program to write to disk every melody that's ever existed

escribió un programa para escribir cada melodía existente

and ever can exist.

y por existir.

And in my hand right now is every melody that's ever existed

Y aquí tengo cada canción existente

and ever can exist.

y por existir.

And the thing is, to be copyrighted,

Y la cosa es que, para tener copyright,

you don't have to do anything formal.

no tienes que hacer nada formal.

As soon as it's written to a fixed, tangible medium, this hard drive,

Si está escrito en un medio fijo, tangible, como este disco duro,

it's copyrighted automatically.

automáticamente tiene copyright.

Now, this leaves copyright law with a very interesting question,

Esto nos deja con una pregunta interesante acerca de la ley de copyright,

because you think about the world before

porque en el mundo de antes

and songwriters had to avoid every song that's ever been written, in red.

los compositores tenían que evitar las canciones escritas antes, en rojo.

Noah and I have exhausted the entire melodic copyright.

Noah y yo hemos agotado todo el copyright melódico existente.

So if you superimpose the songs that have been written, in red,

Si superponemos las canciones que han sido escritas, en rojo,

with the songs that haven't yet been written,

a las canciones todavía sin escribir,

you have an interesting question:

se plantea una pregunta:

Have we infringed every melody that's ever been?

¿Hemos infringido cada melodía existente?

And in the future, every songwriter that writes in the green spots,

Y en el futuro, cada compositor que escribe en los huecos verdes,

have they infringed us?

nos ha infringido?

Now, you might think at this point,

Ahora, igual pensáis,

are you some sort of copyright troll that's trying to take over the world?

¿eres algún tipo de troll del copyright que quiere dominar el mundo?

And I would say, no, absolutely not.

Y diré no, absolutamente no.

In fact, the opposite is true.

De hecho, soy lo contrario.

Noah and I are songwriters ourselves.

Noah y yo somos compositores.

We want to make the world better for songwriters.

Queremos mejorar el mundo para los compositores.

So what we've done is we're taking everything

Así que lo que hemos hecho es coger todo

and putting it in the public domain.

y ponerlo en dominio público.

We're trying to keep space open for songwriters

Abrimos espacios para que los compositores

to be able to make music.

puedan hacer música.

And we're not focused on the lyrics,

Y no nos centramos en la letra,

we're not focused on recording, we're focused on melodies.

no nos centramos en la grabación, sino en las melodías.

And the thing is, we're running out of melodies that we can use.

Y la cosa es que apenas nos quedan melodías por usar.

The copyright system is broken and it needs updating.

El copyright está roto y necesita actualizarse.

Some of the insights that we've received as part of our work

Algo que hemos descubierto como parte de nuestro trabajo

is that melodies to a computer are just numbers

es que las melodías para un ordenador son números

because those melodies have existed since the beginning of time,

porque esas melodías han existido desde el comienzo de los tiempos,

and we're only just discovering them.

y ahora estamos descubriéndolas.

So the melody Do-Re-Mi-Re-Do to a computer is literally 1-2-3-2-1.

Así la melodía Do-Re-Mi-Re-Do para un ordenador es 1-2-3-2-1.

So really the number 1-2-3-2-1 is just a number.

Así que realmente el número 1-2-3-2-1 es sólo un número.

It's just math that's been existing since the beginning of time.

Son mates que han existido desde el comienzo de los tiempos.

And under the copyright laws, numbers are facts.

Y bajo las leyes de copyright, los números son hechos.

And under copyright law, facts either have thin copyright,

Y bajo la ley de copyright, los hechos tienen algo de copyright,

almost no copyright or no copyright at all.

apenas copyright o no copyright.

So maybe if these numbers have existed since the beginning of time

Así que si los números han existido desde el principio,

where we're just plucking them out,

cuando estamos escogiéndolos,

maybe melodies are just math,

quizás las melodías son solo mates,

which is just facts, which maybe are not copyrightable.

que son hechos, que no pueden tener copyright.

Maybe if somebody's suing over a melody alone,

Quizás si alguien demanda solo por la melodía,

not lyrics, not recordings,

no por la letra, la producción,

but just the melody alone,

solo la melodía,

maybe those cases go away.

quizás esos casos se eliminan.

Maybe they get dismissed.

Quizás son desestimados.

Now you might say, well, what constitutes a melody?

Ahora os preguntaréis, ¿qué constituye una melodía?

And we were initially going to take the entire piano keyboard

Y al principio íbamos a coger todo el teclado del piano

and be able to do the entire keyboard.

y crear todo el teclado.

But we thought, let's focus on the vocal range,

Pero decidimos enfocarlo en el rango vocal

which is actually two octaves.

que son dos octavas.

And then we thought, no, actually we're thinking about pop music,

Y después nos decantamos por la música pop,

which is the only thing that makes money that people sue over.

que es lo único que da dinero y por lo que la gente demanda.

So we looked at musicologists,

Hablamos con musicólogos,

and they have debated what is a motif, a short melody versus a longer melody.

y debatieron sobre qué es un motivo, si una melodía corta o larga.

And we landed with 12 notes.

Y dimos con 12 notas.

And then we superimposed that number with songs that have either been litigated

Y después superpusimos ese número con las canciones que han sido demandadas

or threatened to be litigated.

o a punto de estarlo.

For example, The Chiffons had “He’s so fine, oh so fine.”

Por ejemplo, The Chiffons tenían “He’s so fine, oh so fine”.

Versus “My sweet Lord, Oh, sweet Lord.”

Versus “My sweet Lord, Oh, sweet Lord.”

Eight notes.

Ocho notas.

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.

Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.

Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.

That's so close.

Se parecen.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

"Oh, I won't back down.

“Oh, I won’t back down.

No, I won't back down."

No, I won’t back down.”

Versus “Won’t you stay with me

Versus “Won’t you stay with me

'cause you're all I need."

’cause you’re all I need”.

Ten notes.

Diez notas.

Doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo.

Doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo.

Versus Katy Perry's

Versus Katy Perry:

Doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo, doo.

Doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo, doo.

Last two notes are different.

Las notas son distintas.

The jury didn't care, 2.8 million dollars.

No importó, USD 2,8 millones.

Audience: Ooh.

Audiencia: Ooh.

DR: So every song within that is within our parameters of eight notes up,

Cada canción en ese espacio entra en nuestro parámetro de 8 notas verticales,

major and minor, 12 notes across.

mayores y menores, 12 notas horizontales.

So what you see in red is every popular melody

Lo que véis en rojo es cada canción popular

that's ever existed and ever can exist.

existente y por existir.

So all Noah and I had to do is to be able to exhaust that remarkably finite,

Así que lo que teníamos que hacer Noah y yo era agotar esa base de datos

remarkably small data set.

notablemente finita, pequeña.

There aren't that many of them.

No hay muchas.

Eight up, 12 across.

8 verticales, 12 horizontales.

You might say, Damien, songs are more than just melodies, there's chords too.

Igual decís, Damien, las canciones son más que melodías, son acordes también,

And I would totally agree with you

Y estaría de acuerdo contigo

because it turns out that that's even easier.

porque es incluso más fácil.

In 2017, Peter Burkimsher exhausted every chord.

En 2017, Peter Burkimsher agotó cada acorde.

You can download it today in GitHub.

Los podéis descargar en GitHub.

We're instead focused not on lyrics, not on recordings,

No nos centramos en la letra, en la producción,

we're focused on melodies.

nos centramos en las melodías.

And the thing is, we're running out

Las estamos agotando

because the song isn't just a single melody,

porque esta canción no es solo una melodía,

but there are many parts to a song,

hay muchas partes en una canción,

and each part of that song can have many motifs and melodies within it.

y cada parte puede tener varios motivos y melodías.

So each song can have up to ten melodies and motifs.

Así que cada canción puede tener hasta diez melodías y motivos.

So SoundCloud, which is a way that musicians can upload to this website

Así que SoundCloud, donde los músicos pueden subir

and distribute their work,

y distribuir su trabajo,

SoundCloud currently has 200 million songs,

SoundCloud tiene 200 millones de canciones,

and the number of open spaces is shrinking exponentially.

y los espacios abiertos disminuyen exponencialmente.

Because every basement musician is recording, and they’re recording

Porque cada músico pequeño graba, y lo graban

and they’re uploading it to YouTube, to Spotify

y lo suben a Youtube, a Spotify

and to SoundCloud.

y a SoundCloud.

And they are exhausting the entire mathematical data set.

Y están agotando toda la base de datos matemática.

They're exhausting the open spaces.

Están agotando los espacios

until there are not going to be any more left.

hasta que ya no haya.

What Noah and I have done is we're trying to preserve those spots that are left.

Noah y yo hemos intentado preservar los espacios que quedan.

We're trying to be able to take those green spots,

Estamos intentando coger esos espacios verdes,

put them in the public domain

ponerlos en dominio público

so that other people can be able to make them.

para que la gente pueda hacerlos.

Because we're running out.

Porque se están agotando.

The thing is we're just getting started because if you go to our website,

Recién estamos empezando porque si vais a nuestra página web,

AllTheMusic.info, you can not only download all the music we've made,

AllTheMusic.info, no solo podréis descargar la música que hicimos,

which is a lot,

que es bastante,

you can also download the program that we used,

sino también el el programa que usamos,

and we're giving away the code for free so you can expand upon our work.

junto con el código gratis para que podáis expandir nuestro trabajo.

Something I didn't tell you is that those eight notes that we did,

Lo que no os he contado es que esas ocho notas que hicimos,

as we speak right now, we've expanded that to 12 notes.

mientras estamos hablando, las hemos expandido a 12.

So instead of just the white notes, now we've got the black notes, too.

Así que no solo tenemos las notas blancas, sino también las negras.

So we're covering jazz, classical music,

Así que tenemos jazz, música clásica,

and we think it's only a matter of time before somebody is going to expand that

y creemos que solo es cuestión de tiempo hasta que alguien lo expanda

to do the entire piano keyboard

hasta todo el teclado del piano

and take our 12 notes and expand it to 100

y desde las 12 notas pase a las 100

with every rhythmic variation and every chordal variation

con cada variación rítmica y cada variación de acorde

till our remarkably finite mathematical data set gets further exhausted.

hasta que nuestra base de datos finita se expanda.

This is going to happen.

Va a pasar.

And the thing is, how is the law going to respond?

Y la cuestión es, ¿cómo va a responder la ley?

Because the thing is, we're not focused

No nos centramos

on somebody copying a previous person's melody.

en que alguien copie una melodía.

We're focused instead on somebody accidentally copying a song

Nos centramos en que alguien copia una canción

that they either have heard and forgotten about

que, o bien ha escuchado y olvidado,

or have never heard before in their lives.

o que nunca ha escuchado en su vida.

And the chance of landing in an open spot is remarkably small,

Y la posibilidad de encontrar un espacio abierto es pequeña,

and it's shrinking every day.

y disminuye cada día.

And the thing is,

Y la cosa es que,

the odds of you as a songwriter getting sued are remarkably high.

la probabilidad de que seas demandado como autor es alta.

And if you get sued, you're going want to think about

Y si te demandan, tendrás que pensar

what a judge or a jury is going to think about,

en lo que el juez o jurado van a pensar,

and they are going to think about two questions.

y pensarán en dos preguntas.

The first question is:

La primera pregunta es:

Is that previous songwriter’s copyright valid?

¿Es válido el copyright anterior?

Do they even have a copyright in that previous song?

¿Tienen siquiera copyright en esa canción anterior?

Second question is: Did you infringe their copyright?

La segunda pregunta es: ¿Has infringido su copyright?

So to the first question, maybe the answer to that is no,

La respuesta a la primera pregunta, podría ser no,

because if they're suing just over the melody,

porque si se demanda solo por la melodía,

maybe that melody's existed since the beginning of time.

igual esa melodía ha existido desde siempre.

Maybe there are only so many notes that are math, that are not copyrightable.

Igual solo hay notas que son mates, que no pueden tener copyright.

To the second question did you infringe, there are two sub questions.

A la segunda pregunta, hay dos sub preguntas.

The first question is: Did you access, did you hear that previous song?

La primera pregunta es: ¿Has accedido o escuchado esa canción?

And if so, are those two songs substantially similar?

Si es así, ¿se parecen esas canciones?

Now the first question: Did you access or hear that previous song?

La primera pregunta: ¿Has accedido o escuchado esa canción?

That's got a lot of problems, it's really problematic.

Esa pregunta es realmente problemática.

And the reason for that is there are only a few cases

Y el motivo es que solo hay unos pocos casos

where access is crystal clear.

donde el acceso es claro.

For example, John Fogerty was alleged to have infringed John Fogerty

Por ejemplo, John Fogerty supuestamente infringió a John Fogerty

when he was part of Creedence.

cuando fue parte de Creedence.

So clearly John Fogerty had access to John Fogerty songs.

Claramente John Fogerty tenía acceso a las canciones de John Fogerty.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, on no access,

En el lado opuesto del espectro, sin acceso,

what if a baby were to sing into their toy?

¿y si un bebé cantara en un juguete?

And again, as soon as the toy recorder happens,

En cuanto el juguete empiece a grabar,

it's copyrighted automatically, it's a fixed, tangible medium.

tiene automáticamente copyright, en un medio fijo, tangible.

So if a baby starts singing

Si un bebé empieza a cantar

Da da da da da, da da da da da da.

Da da da da da, da da da da da da.

And a year later, Taylor Swift sings, "I stay up too late.

Y un año después, Taylor Swift canta, “I stay up too late.

Got nothing in my brain."

Got nothing in my brain”.

Clearly, Taylor Swift has not infringed that baby

Claramente, Taylor Swift no ha infringido a ese bebé

because Taylor Swift has not heard that baby's recording, OK?

porque Taylor Swift no ha escuchado la grabación del bebé.

Clear case of no access.

Caso claro de sin acceso.

But the thing is, almost none of the cases are that clear.

Pero la cosa es, casi ningún caso es tan claro.

What if there's a question mark

¿Y si sale la pregunta

as to whether the second person heard it or not?

de si la segunda persona la ha escuchado o no?

Maybe they heard it, maybe they didn't.

Quizás sí, quizás no.

Maybe they heard it and forgot it.

Quizás sí y lo olvidaron.

Maybe they subconsciously infringed.

Quizás infringieron sin querer.

These are all what the law calls fact questions.

Estas se llaman preguntas de hecho.

And the thing is, almost every copyright case that comes out is a fact question.

Casi cualquier caso de copyright es una pregunta de hecho.

Almost never is it as clear as John Fogerty

Casi nunca es tan claro como John Fogerty

or as clear as Taylor Swift.

o como Taylor Swift.

Almost every case is that middle section,

Casi cualquier caso es el medio,

that fact question.

la pregunta de hecho.

And the hard part about fact questions is they're notoriously hard to resolve

Y lo complicado de las preguntas de hecho es que son difíciles de resolver

at an early stage in the case,

en el comienzo del caso,

because when you think about a life span of a lawsuit,

porque cuando piensas en la duración de una demanda,

it starts out as a cease and desist letter.

empiezan con un cese y desista.

You need to pay me or I'll sue you.

Tienes que pagarme o te demando.

It goes forward and it's going to take years.

Sigue y tardará años.

And the thing about fact questions,

Y las preguntas de hecho,

they don't get resolved until the end of that process.

no se resuelven hasta el final del proceso.

That's what happened to George Harrison.

Es lo que le pasó a George Harrison.

After trial, the judge said, "I think you subconsciously infringed."

El juez dijo, “Has infringido de forma subconsciente”.

So if you're a songwriter who's never heard a melody before,

Si eres un compositor que no ha escuchado una melodía,

but you are approached by somebody saying you stole their song,

pero alguien te dice que has robado su canción,

what are you going to do?

¿qué harías?

Sam Smith was approached by Tom Petty.

Sam Smith fue abordado por Tom Petty.

Tom Petty said, “My song ‘Won’t Back Down’ sounds like your ‘Stay with Me.’”

Tom Petty dijo, “Mi ‘Won’t Back Down’ se parece a tu ‘Stay with Me’”.

Sam Smith reportedly responded,

Sam Smith a eso contestó,

"Hey, man, I've never heard your song before.

“Tío, nunca he escuchado tu canción.

That was written before I was born."

Fue escrita antes de que naciera”.

But if I was in Sam Smith’s position,

Pero si estuviera en el lugar de Sam Smith,

I would look at this long road ahead of me and the prospect at the end

miraría a este largo camino delante y el desenlace al final

of a judge saying, you know, "I think you subliminally infringed."

de un juez diciendo, “Has infringido de forma subliminal”.

So what are you going to do?

¿Entonces qué harías?

It's not surprising that Sam Smith made Tom Petty a co-songwriter,

No sorprende que Tom Petty sea el co-compositor de Sam Smith,

giving Tom Petty a lot of his songwriting royalties.

dándole a Tom Petty muchos derechos de compositor.

Radiohead had a song, "And I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo."

Radiohead tenían una canción, “And I’m a creep. I’m a weirdo”.

The Hollies said, "Hey, that sounds like our song."

The Hollies dijeron, “Eso parece nuestra canción”.

They made them co-songwriters

Fueron sus co-compositores.

Lana Del Rey ironically, had a song that sounds like "Creep."

Lana Del Rey irónicamente, tenía una canción llamada “Creep”.

Offered to make them co-songwriters, reportedly.

Les ofreció ser sus co-compositores.

Katy Perry had a song that she testified

Katy Perry tenía una canción que aseguró

and all of her co-songwriters testified,

y todos sus compositores aseguraron,

"I have never heard that previous song before in my life"

“No he escuchado esta canción en mi vida”

and the other side didn't dispute it.

y la otra parte no se lo discutió.

They say, "We have no evidence that they actually heard the song,

Dijeron “No tenemos evidencias de que escucharon la canción,

but we did have three-point-some million YouTube views,

pero tiene tres millones de reproducciones en YouTube,

so they must have heard it."

así que la escucharon”.

A jury agreed with them and Katy Perry was on the hook for 2.8 million dollars.

El jurado estuvo de acuerdo y Katy Perry pagó USD 2,8 millones.

Now, if you are an accused songwriter who's never heard the song before,

Ahora, si eres un compositor acusado que nunca ha escuchado la canción,

that is an untenable position.

estás en una posición difícil.

How are you going to avoid getting shaken down

¿Cómo vas a evitar que te la claven

for something that you may have never heard?

por algo que nunca has escuchado?

Shouldn't there be an easier way?

¿No hay una manera más fácil?

Shouldn't there be a way that early on in that process

¿No habrá una manera de que al comienzo del proceso

for a judge or a lawyer to be able to have an early evidentiary hearing to say

un juez o abogado pueda tener algunas pruebas de que

maybe melodies are math, which are facts which are not copyrightable.

las melodías son mates, son hechos y por tanto sin copyright?

Or maybe there's no evidence showing that this later person

O quizás no hay evidencias de que una persona

has heard the earlier person's song.

ha escuchado la canción de otra.

Maybe the idea of subconscious infringement goes by.

Igual la idea de infracción subconsciente se elimina.

Now if you are a songwriter, you should really care about this

Si eres compositor esto te debería importar

because each day you are walking in a minefield

ya que cada día estás en un campo de minas

that you didn't even know was there.

que ni sabías que había.

You’re trying to avoid every song, whether you’ve heard that song or not.

Intentas evitar cada canción, la hayas o no escuchado.

And Noah and I, we're trying to preserve those open spaces

Y Noah y yo estamos intentando preservar esos espacio abiertos

so that you can be able to make the music in the public domain

para que puedas hacer música en el dominio público

in a way that you've always thought it.

de la manera que siempre quisiste.

The question is not: “Have I made this new song or not?”

La pregunta no es: “¿He creado esta canción nueva o no?”

Because no song is new.

Porque no las hay.

Noah and I have exhausted the data set.

Noah y yo hemos agotado la base.

The real question:

La pregunta real es:

"Is my song a green song, or is my song a red song?"

“¿Mi canción es una canción verde o roja?”

Or perhaps the real question is:

O quizás la pregunta real es:

Should you have the blank page that everybody thinks is there

¿Deberías tener la página en blanco que todos creen que está allí

in the first place?

desde el principio?

If you're a judge or a lawyer,

Si eres un juez o abogado,

think about having an early evidentiary hearing

plantéate tener una audiencia preliminar

to be able to take the evidenciary burden from the defendant

para quitar el peso de las pruebas del acusado

to prove negative that they've never heard that song

para negar que nunca ha escuchado dicha canción

and bring it back to the plaintiff where it belongs,

y devolverlas al demandante, dónde pertenecen,

that they have to prove that the other side heard the song.

que tiene que probar que el acusado la escuchó.

And they have to prove that that melody is more than just a fact.

Y tienen que demostrar que la melodía es más que un hecho.

And if you are a song lover, you should really care about this

Y si te gustan las canciones, esto te debería importar

because the current state has a chilling effect on songwriters.

porque el estado actual es catastrófico para los compositores.

Something that I haven't told you is that George Harrison, after the trial,

Lo que no os he contado es que George Harrison, después del juicio,

he stopped writing music for a while.

dejó de escribir música.

He told "Rolling Stone" that, after the trial,

Contó a “Rolling Stone” que,

"It's hard to start writing again

“Es difícil volver a escribir

because every song I hear sounds like something else."

porque cada canción suena a algo diferente”.

There's a reason for that, George.

Hay un motivo para eso, George.

Because there are only so many notes.

Porque no hay muchas notas.

There are only so many melodies.

No hay muchas melodías.

And the open spaces are running out exponentially.

Y los espacios abiertos se van perdiendo.

Now, ironically, Noah and I have made all the melodies

Noah y yo hemos creado todas las melodías

and put them into the public domain

y las hemos hecho públicas

in an effort to try to give songwriters more freedom,

en un intento de dar mayor libertad a los autores,

to be able to make more and more music

para crear más y más música

and less fear of accidentally stepping on musical landmines.

y menos miedo de pisar en minas musicales.

Noah and I have made all the music

Noah y yo hemos creado toda la música

to be able to allow future songwriters

para que los futuros compositores

to make all of their music.

puedan crear toda su música.

Thank you.

Gracias.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)