It's TED Talks Daily. I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

Surprisingly, we music lovers are running out of a valuable resource. Melodies. That's right.

Melodies are disappearing because so many are being copyrighted to prevent infringement by other artists.

As lawyer and musician Damien Reel explains in his fascinating and song-infused talk,

there are only so many notes and combinations of notes.

So today, he points us to a way to preserve musical open spaces.

I'm going to tell you a true story, but instead of the name of the protagonist, I'm going to

make you think about your favorite artist. Think about your favorite musician.

And think about your favorite song by that musician. Think about them bringing that song

from nothing to something into your ears and bringing you so much joy. Now think about your favorite musician getting sued.

And that lawyer saying, I represent this group, I think you heard their song,

and then you wrote your song, you violated their copyright.

And imagine your musician saying, no, that's not true.

I don't think I've ever heard that song, but even if I did,

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

Imagine the case going to trial and a judge saying,

you know, I think I believe you, musician.

I don't think you consciously copied that group,

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

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

Think about whether that's fair.

Think about whether that's just.

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