Piracy? or Original work?

In the community of Japanese pops, people pays much attention to an issue of copyright infringement: according to Mr. KOBAYASHI Asei, who brought the case into court, his commercial song "Doko-mademo Yukou (Let's go, even to the end of the world)" composed in 1967 and "Kinen-ju (Memorial tree)" composed in 1993 by Mr. HATTORI Katsuhisa have too many points in common like a twin.

Interesting aspects of these melodies are revealed by analyzing them from the view point of "protein music".

As can be seen from the scores below, the former contains a fragment of alpha-2 plasmin inhibitor and the latter that of calcium channel alpha-2b, respectively in transposition. What is to be noted is that the fragment of alpha-2 plasmin inhibitor is just the theme of this protein.

Alpha-2 plasmin inhibitor has a function of preventing a thrombus to dissolve. The deficiency of this protein tends to cause bleeding because thrombi are easily destroyed.

Other effects than the prevention of bleeding caused by the promotion of the synthesis of this protein can be inferred by comparing the resemblance of the melody of alpha-2 plasmin inhibitor with those of other proteins whose functions have already been known. For example, some of such inferred effects are warm feeling just as we feel after warming-up, desire to walk, and some loss of sensitivity to pain. In fact, Dr. Sternheimer himself has experienced these feelings just after decoding the protein into melody. How suggestive is the title of "Doko-mademo Yukou", which means "Let's go, even to the end of the world"! Even the words meaning "Let's go, even to the end of the world" are placed just at the place corresponding to the melody fragment. Considering also the fact that the theme of the protein coincides with that of this song, we might say that the composer must have produced this melody by inspiration as a response to an unconscious strong need he felt to increase the protein in his blood.

Calcium channel alpha-2b, on the other hand, is a protein related to signal transduction in neurons. Promotion of the synthesis of this protein helps to activate nerves and perform physical and mental exercise. A point to be noted is that the theme of this protein does not coincide with that of "Kinen-ju", different from the case of "Doko-mademo Yukou". In addition, the melody fragment which coincides with "Kinen-ju" contains less information than the corresponding fragment of alpha-2 plasmin inhibitor. The effect of inspiration is, therefore, less in "Kinen-ju" than in "Doko-mademo Yukou".

As described above, we may say that each of the melodies in question is composed unconsciously under the influence of a different protein. What will be the judgment of the court ? And what will be the ground of the judgment?

There is another interesting episode about these melodies: Dr. Sternheimer says, by comparing other parts of these two melodies without any information about the composers, that the composer of "Kinen-ju" must be older than the other composer. It means that, if we compare the age of the composers when each of the melodies was composed, the composer of "Kinen-ju" must be older than the other composer. Analysis of these melodies from the view point of protein music, Dr. Sternheimer could deduce such an astonishing conclusion. The fact is that the composer of "Kinen-ju" was older by about twenty years: "Kinen-ju" was composed when the composer was 56 years old, while "Doko-mademo Yukou" is a work of the other composer when he was 35 years old. The explanation for such deduction will be given at another opportunity because there remains no space here.