"Food of Love", Part One

It has taken too long to get round to sorting out the best entries, but the "If music be the food of love ..." competition received a far larger response than usual. No entries were disqualified for arriving late or for not being contained within an email entitled "Food of Love", though we know who you are ...  Some entries were a little difficult to understand and required some intellectual input on the part of the judges, but we got there in the end.

The identity of the winner of the prize -- complimentary registration for this year's CLT "Music and Intellectual Property" conference on 8 December (programme and registration details here) -- will be announced tomorrow, along with the winning entry. Today, for the edification of readers, the 1709 Blog lists a sample of the better if ultimately unsuccessful efforts. Thanks, by the way, to all the entrants: your wit and in some cases wisdom is very much appreciated.

First, let's remind ourselves of the rules. Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night opens with Duke Orsino saying

"If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it".

Competitors were asked to complete the following sentence: "If music be the food of love, then copyright is ..."   Today's batch of 10 entries has been tidily subdivided into "Law and Commerce" and "Philosophy, Culture and Aesthetics", though readers will see that these are in some cases only very loose descriptions.

LAW AND COMMERCE

... a bill of attainder (Anton van Dellen, 8 New Square)

… the tab (Henry Ward, 8 New Square)

… the prenuptial agreement (Ben Farrand, European University Institute, Department of Law, Firenze)

… the barcode on the box of heart-shaped choccies (Graeme Fearon, Thring Townsend Lee & Pembertons LLP)

… to ensure that,
If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before….
at least we can get paid for it (Mike Edwards, Audible Magic LLC)

… ... what
Cheer’d EMI with justice of their cause,
With promise of high pay and great rewards:
But all in vain; they had no case to fight,
And for them no hope to win the day (Mike Edwards, Audible Magic LLC, via Henry VI, Part III)

… a method and composition for limiting unauthorized regurgitation (no prizes for guessing that fellow blogger Michael Factor, JMB, Factor & Co., is a patent attorney)

PHILOSOPHY, CULTURE AND AESTHETICS

… the joy of writing (Khadijeh Hamidian)

… responsible for turning the “Free Love” of the 60s and 70s into the “Tainted Love” of the 80s (Andrew Clemson, Cleveland)

… the pearly wisdom gates above (Rebecca Dimaridis, Jeffrey Green Russell Solicitors)

… why every serenader must sing his own song (Peter Smith, Serjeants)

More tomorrow!