Legal Literacy - This article discusses copyright and ethics in creating music, especially in the context of covering songs or re-singing other people's songs. The article also explains the legal consequences and efforts to resolve disputes related to copyright infringement.

In the digital era and the disruption of information technology as it is today, most of the time, activities and human interactions are forced to switch to the virtual world. Whether because it is far more efficient in reaching many things, the internet with its rapidly developing technology provides a variety of services and features that are not only informative-actual, educative, but also entertainment media that can be easily enjoyed by all groups.

In addition to being connoisseurs and spectators, many people are now competing to get involved in creating and working with their respective abilities and characters. And we can see now how the term “content creator” seems to have become a new profession which is promising in the era of digitalization like today. And one small example of a work that is often enjoyed by many people is music or songs.

We can see, for example, on the YouTube platform, how tens of millions of songs are played every day or how hundreds of thousands of song titles are searched for by people every minute. Apart from the fairly large and promising income, presenting a musical work is ultimately a kind of commodity that can reach popularity much faster. However, even though it is considered an easy and common activity, that does not mean that every person or content creator can arbitrarily create or produce their work. Many provisions must also be considered, not only written rules but also ethics in creating.

We can observe this from events that have occurred recently. The behavior of covering songs or re-singing other people's songs has become a discourse and polemic that now fills social media timelines with pro and con comments and opinions regarding Copyright, ethics and legal consequences. In fact, some musicians, creators or those who claim to own songs that are often covered feel uncomfortable, either because the content creator does not include the name of the song owner, there is no good faith to ask for permission beforehand, or there is no mutual agreement, even to the point of being considered a violation of Copyright.