The case of Vincent Peters v. Kanye West that occurred in the seventh circuit court in 2012 is an excellent example of an alleged copyright infringement, in which the plaintiff loses his case due to lack of evidence of similarities. A person with no previous knowledge about copyright protection would, at first glance at the background information, most likely assume West is guilty. It is easy to think “what are the chances of two rappers writing songs about the same thing, referencing the same person, and using many of the same lines?” and jump to the conclusion that the second song created is modeled after the first, but copyright infringement proves to be much harder to prove than simply coming to this conclusion. After reading through Judge Wood’s and the court’s reasoning behind their decision to rule West not guilty of infringement, it is much clearer to see that they did indeed make a fair verdict.
Upon first listening to the two songs, I personally did not find much in common between them. Musically, there are no similarities. It is easy to see why the only elements of the song that were investigated were the lyrics and their form. When listening a second time, it is possible to understand why Vince P…show more content… From intrinsic and extrinsic, from probative and striking to substantial similarity, it is no wonder that there is not a clear standard when it comes to proving copyright infringement. Each circuit court has their own way of determining how and in what way two pieces may be similar, and which ways violate the copyright. There are different “tests” and “formulas” used in every situation. Vince P cannot be blamed, then, for arguing that a combination of the methodologies be used to help back his case. What was his downfall, however, was not what type of similarities were found, but that the ones they found could not be used in the court of law to convict