Jail time for copyists?

In an account relating to Cissy Houston discussing her daughter Whitney (Nippy) Houston with Oprah Winfrey:

The parent [Cissy] claims she taught the megastar [Whitney] everything she knows and the family used to joke that she stole everything about her singing style from her mother.
She continued to Oprah: ‘I made her what she was. She had been watching me in sessions and onstage for years, picking up pacing, breathing, and microphone techniques, and then adding her own little nuances, too.

'My son Michael used to joke with me about Nippy’s technique—“ Ma,” he’d say, “Nippy should be in jail for stealing all your riffs and everything. You should sue her.”’