The Evidentiary Use and Misuse of Forensic Musicology in Copyright Litigation

Alfred C. Yen - Boston College Law School
Vol. 58
November 2024
Page 553

This Article examines the use of testimony from expert forensic musicologists in music copyright infringement cases. It concludes that courts presently misuse such testimony in ways that confuse juries and violate the Federal Rules of Evidence. This does not mean that forensic musicologists should not testify in music copyright cases. Musicologists have ample training and expertise to help juries identify formal similarities between musical works and understand whether those similarities suggest copying.

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