一种算法创造了所有可能的音乐旋律，因此没有人可以起诉侵犯版权

一种算法创造了所有可能的音乐旋律，因此没有人可以起诉侵犯版权

New music is no longer a thing, thanks to a pair of lawyers who created an algorithm to write every single musical melody that can possibly exist. Rather than claiming all music as their personal property, however, the duo have released their entire catalog of tunes into the public domain, in the hope that this will bring an end to copyright lawsuits.

新音乐不再是一个问题，这要感谢一对律师，他们创造了一种算法来编写每一个可能存在的音乐旋律。然而，他们并没有声称所有的音乐都是他们的个人财产，而是将他们所有的曲目都发布到公共领域，希望这将结束版权诉讼。

Lawyer, musician, and programmer Damien Riehl came up with the idea after realizing that all singer-songwriters are essentially walking on a “melodic minefield”, because there are only a finite number of melodies that can exist. As such, with each new song that gets written, the chances of creating something genuinely unique decreases, and the possibility of writing a melody that has already been recorded by someone else increases.

律师、音乐家和程序员达米安·里尔(Damien Riehl)在意识到所有的创作型歌手本质上都是走在“旋律雷区”上之后，才有了这个想法，因为能够存在的旋律数量是有限的。因此，每写一首新歌，创作出真正独特的东西的机会就会减少，而创作出已经被别人录过的旋律的可能性就会增加。

In a recent Tedx Talk, Riehl explains that this wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the ridiculous nature of copyright laws, which state that a piece of music becomes copyrighted the moment it is recorded. Even worse, it is possible to be sued for “subconscious infringement”, whereby an artist may have to pay a settlement to another artist even if they claim to have never heard the song that they are accused of copying.

在最近的Tedx演讲中，Riehl解释说，如果不是版权法的荒谬本质，这不会是一个问题，版权法规定，音乐作品一经录制即受版权保护。更糟糕的是，它可能会被起诉为“潜意识侵权”，即一个艺术家可能不得不向另一个艺术家支付和解金，即使他们声称从未听过他们被指控抄袭的那首歌。

Ben Taub

Riehl sites numerous such cases, revealing how George Harrison was found guilty of subconscious infringement after the chorus to his song My Sweet Lord was deemed to be too similar to a track called He’s So Fine by The Chiffons. In another example, Radiohead were forced to name a group called The Hollies as co-writers of their song Creep, which apparently included a melody that also appears in one of the latter band’s songs.

Riehl网站上有许多这样的案例，揭示了乔治·哈里森是如何在他的歌曲《My Sweet Lord》的合唱被雪纺绸乐队认为与《He 's So Fine》太相似后被判潜意识侵权的。在另一个例子中，电台司令被迫指定一个名为“霍利斯”(Hollies)的乐队为他们的歌曲《Creep》的联合作者，这首歌的旋律显然也出现在后者的一首歌曲中。

To try and bring an end to such cases, Riehl teamed up with Noah Rubin to create an algorithm that could produce every 12-note melody that has ever been written or can ever be written, using one octave of musical notes. The algorithm uses the same ‘brute force’ technique that hackers use when attempting to steal passwords, by essentially generating every possible combination of characters.

为了结束这种情况，Riehl和Noah Rubin合作创造了一种算法，可以产生所有已经写好的或能够写的12个音符的旋律，使用一个八度音阶。该算法使用了与黑客试图盗取密码时相同的“蛮力”技术，即生成所有可能的字符组合。

A total of 68 billion melodies were generated, which are now all available at allthemusic.info.

总共产生了680亿首旋律，现在在allthemusic.info上都能找到。

The pair argue that their algorithm highlights how musical melodies are essentially just numbers arranged in a particular order, and that since numbers can’t be copyrighted, music should also not be constrained by infringement laws.

他们认为，他们的算法强调了音乐旋律本质上是按特定顺序排列的数字，而且既然数字不能被版权保护，音乐也不应该受到侵权法的约束。

"No song is new. Noah and I have exhausted the data set," explains Riehl. "Noah and I have made all the music to be able to allow future songwriters to make all of their music."

“没有一首歌是新的。诺亚和我已经用尽了所有的数据集，”Riehl解释道。“诺亚和我创作了所有的音乐，让未来的词曲作者能够创作他们所有的音乐。”