From sheet music to source code

How copyright battles from a century ago shape today's fight over just compensation in the world of generative AI

Imagine a parlor in Manhattan, circa 1906. A soft bustle of conversation, the faint scent of cigar smoke, and in the corner, a polished mahogany upright grand piano. But this is not just any piano. At the flick of a switch, a mechanism clicks to life, the paper roll begins to turn, and out comes the sounds of Victor Herbert’s hit tune Kiss Me Again, per…