Explain to Joan whether under the Copyright Act 1990 (Cth):
(a) copyright subsists in the use of the words "Shake it off" as a phrase; (10 marks); and
(b) whether the printing of the Chorus in Joan's book infringes the copyright in the lyrics to the song "Shake it Off?"

Joan D' Arc is an Australian singer, song writer and author of children's books living and working in Melbourne, Victoria. She  produces a children's book to encourage pre-school children to explore music and her book is titled "Shake it off!"  "Shake it off!" is also the title to a famous song by Taylor Swift.

Joan's children's book is a picture book. The format is one page has a cartoon of a famous musician, composer or singer, and the opposite page reproduces part of the words or music from the musician's, composer's or singer's work.  The book is made up of 26 such double pages. On the page dealing with Taylor Swift, there is a cartoon of her on one page and on the second page is the following part of the Chorus from her song "Shake it off!":

 

"Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play

And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off"

The Lyrics for Taylor Swift's songs can be found on the internet at numerous lyric websites.
The phrase "Shake it off" is used continually through out the song both as a single line, in a number of verses and the chorus between verses but also prominently in the ending of the song where it is repeated 14 times. The line appears twenty-one (21) times through out the whole song of 70 lines. The chorus itself repeats 4 times in the complete song.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Analysis of Copyright Infringement in Joans Book Part a Copyright in the Phrase Shake it off Under t... View the full answer