The earliest example of music-related patent violations came in 1788, when Ludwig van Beethoven was busted attempting to sell bootleg copies of sheet music to Mozart's "Requiem" he had hastily transcribed as an audience member two weeks prior. Sadly, Beethoven was already deaf, leaving him forced to guess at its score, theme, and use of electric guitars; the transcribed sheet music he sold then is better known today as Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird.