Surfin U.S.A is a 1963 song produced by the Beach Boys. Chuck berry produced the song "Sweet Little Sixteen" in 1958. The Surfin' USA had some of its contents plagiarized from Sweet Little Mix . Plagiarism involves the use of messages that are of another party. The failure to acknowledge the ownerships and copyright rights of the initial owner of content amounts to plagiarism and violation of copyright laws. Plagiarism is a severe breach of content rights. In 1963, Beach Boy's Brian Wilson wrote Surfin USA. The song had similar features as Chuck Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen, which was produced in 1958. The Beach Boys did not ask permission to use Chuck Berry's melody and ideas in their song. As a result, Chuck Berry sued them for using their song.
The penalty for committing such plagiarism was that the credit initially granted to Brian Wilson for writing the song was changed to be Chuck Berry's. Chuck Berry received all the previous and future royalties from the single and entire album (Allen, 2015). Surfin USA was a viral song, and when Chuck Berry possessed it, the Beach Boys lost significant royalties. Another effect of such plagiarism is that it led to the discrediting of all the songs of the Beach Boys among their peers and fans.
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Further, it led to the decline of trust that people had for the Beach Boys. The group was never viewed as inspirational after such an instance. The instances of plagiarism were present in different aspects of the two songs. For example, the melody and theme of Surfin USA are the same as that in the Sweet Little Sixteen (Allen, 2015) . Besides, the two songs name different locations, but refer to the same idea. Wilson, therefore, wrote Surfin' USA, claiming it is a unique idea, yet it contained designs and lyrics inspired by Chuck Berry.
References
Allen, M. (2015). “Just a Half a Mile from the Mississippi Bridge": The Mississippi River Valley Origins of Rock and Roll. The Southern Quarterly , 52 (3), 99-120.
