5 Things Musicians Should Keep In Mind To Avoid Copyright Violations

As an entertainment lawyer in Nigeria, I have to deal with a lot of Intellectual Property and copyright law issues on behalf of artists and musicians in Nigeria. It is common knowledge among the musician community that if you can just play G, C, and D chords on the guitar, you can perform hundreds of hit songs. Several musicians have found themselves at the centre of controversy because they only play the same three chords again and again. To be quite honest, the term “three-chord” is almost like a genre unto itself. As there are only a finite number of discrete notes, as well as a restricted number of chord progressions, musicians have a certain quantity of notes to work with. Hence copyright violation can creep in, sometimes, even unknowingly.