JerryKnight.com

The Gustav Holst Foundation is suing Hans Zimmer, the movie soundtrack composer, for copying parts of Holst’s Mars movement of The Planets in the soundtrack for Gladiator. There are so many things wrong with this, but here’s my take. Composers have been mimicking, adapting, and even wholesale copying parts of each others’ compositions for centuries. There’s no question that the Gladiator soundtrack stands on its own as a composition, rather than being a plagiarized copy of Holst’s work. It took the Holst Foundation 6 years to notice the similarities and do something about it. They should be happy that Holst’s music inspired Zimmer to create another great work. Copyright infringement should mean that parts of the copyrighted work have been taken and used verbatim. If Zimmer had simply used the Mars movement without permission (of the composer, having been dead 65 years, but that’s a separate issue), that would be copyright infringement. And not simply themes or chord progressions – it would have to be nearly 100% identical. Anything less would be mimicry, variation, etc. The line between mimicry and plagiarism and the line between derivative work and copyright infringement are usually the same line. It’s hard to figure out exactly where that line is, but Gustav Holst certainly did not compose the soundtrack for Gladiator, and the resemblence could not have harmed the copyright holders in any way. Rant finished.

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