Copyright All the Melodies ... or maybe not so much

Copyright All the Melodies ... or maybe not so much I've watched Damien Riehl's amusing TEDxMinneapolis talk recently (https://invidio.us/watch?v=sJtm0MoOgiU) in which he and a partner algorithmically ran an exhaustive brute-force attack on all melodies consisting of 12 notes of 8 tones (the chromatic scale), as an end-run around copyright closing in on all possible musical melodies. The methods are ingenious, and the goals admirable. The reasoning, however, seems faulty on at least two points. Standing If Riehl & co have in fact contributed their works to the public domain, instead of licensing them, they've fallen victim to one of the classic blunders: Ceding standing. Though not precedent, the example of Highsmith vs. Getty, in which a photographer (Carol Highsmith) contributed her life's work to the US Library of Congress and the public domain, was sent a cease-and-desist by Getty Images / Almy / LCS demanding a licensing fee, and in turn sued, in a somewhat celebrated case, f...