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Sisqó had to settle with Ricky Martin for quoting "Living the vida loca", then there's the debacle around Katy Perry's Dark Horse...

Point is songwriters absolutely get litigious over reproducing small portions of their IP.

complex.com/music/majority-sisqo-thong-song-publishing-owned-by-writer-livin-la-vida-loca

huffpost.com/entry/katy-perry-dark-horse-lawsuit-payment_n_5d43d825e4b0acb57fca3ff2

factmag.com/2016/06/25/sampling-hip-hop-copyright/

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Yeah, I've heard about some of those cases. It's surprising how far copyright can be stretched sometimes.

What's more surprising is to see copyleft advocates positioned so strongly in favour of giving copyright that kind of reach. I think that in a different context, some of the cases you refer to would be used by these same copyleft supporters as examples of why copyright needs to be more weakly enforced, not more strongly.

At the very least it should be consistent. If Microsoft can sue me for something trivial that probably shouldn't be illegal but is, then I can sue them for something trivial that probably shouldn't be illegal but is.

If I don't need your permission to do something with your work, then the conditions under which that permission is granted lose their force.

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