Lil Nas X Wins 'Old Town Road' Copyright Lawsuit

So, remember 'Old Town Road'? The song was everywhere in 2019, and everyone was rapping and singing to it. Now, in 2024, the case finally settled. The real takeaway is not who won or lost, but how US courts treated the whole "merger doctrine" in copyright law. Essentially, Lil Nas X and his collaborator Billy Ray Cyrus claimed that they created the song from scratch, and hence, its melody and lyrics were not copied from any existing work. The court ultimately agreed, saying that even if the ideas are similar, you can't copyright concepts or ideas, only the execution of them. This has real-life implications for all of us who love to create - just because an idea might exist somewhere, doesn't mean you can't make it your own. Section 102(b) of the US Copyright Act explicitly states this.