Below are explanations from my professor，an authority of US Copyright law----
The similarities between the two songs are superficial and are almost certainly not the result of copying, and the two songs are not substantially similar enough to constitute infringement even if one had copied from the other.
What people are reacting to is the rhythmic similarity of the two notes that are
prominent in each melody; but even those two notes are not infringing, because
they are a different musical interval in the two pieces. In the French piece,
the interval between the two notes is a whole step (from "3" to "4" in a Western
musical scale), whereas in the Chinese piece, the interval between the two notes
is a minor third (from "3" to "5" in a Western musical scale). The notes that
come in between the two notes are not in the same rhythm or melody and bear no
resemblance at all.
There is a superficial stylistic similarity that arises from the simplicity of
the melodies, the shortness of the phrases between the two-note phrases, and
from the interplay between a child and an adult (or a child and two adults, in
the Chinese piece); but style is not a copyrightable element, and even if it
was, I think the stylistic similarity is unlikely to have been the result of
copying, and not similar enough to warrant an infringement action.
Please feel free to post my reaction to the two pieces to the debate, if you
wish. : ) [end]
————To protect my own privacy, I omitted the professor's name. :)))
Hope this helps! --kitty :)))
