NY Times on copyright lawsuits: Originality is a con

"You now could be held liable for being influenced. That is bad news for pop stars, and the producers and songwriters who help them craft hits. They are now marks for frivolous litigation premised upon nebulous assertions as well as a complete and willful ignorance of how pop music is actually made" - New York Times writes about recent music copyright lawsuits (Katy Perry, Juice WRLD, Robin Thicke...), and makes a point: "Pop music history is the history of near overlap... The idea that this might be actionable is the new twist. Every song benefits from what preceded it, whether it’s a melodic idea, a lyrical motif, a sung rhythm, a drum texture. A forensic analysis of any song would find all sorts of pre-existing DNA".