>> i screamed oh, my god, the baby. >> i was shouting, get back in the car, the baby's in the other car. >> reporter: it took only minutes to turn erin holley's world upside down in a hot this is "nightline." summer day in 2017, she and her husband accidently left their tonight, moms on a mission. five week old son finn locked in kid the trapped in hot cars, a car. >> i remember saying to my deaths on a record. husband, i don't know how quickly cars get fatally hot, >> after eight hours inside of a vehicle. but i know it's really fast. >> one parent's close call. and i didn't know, i >> i screamed oh, my god, the baby. >> now her passion, unlocking technology and solutions that click with parents. getting lawmakers and auto know how devastated, makers to help save baby on board. plus, copycat. didn't know how devastating this katy perry's stolen notes, "dark exact situation would be. horse" ripping off an riff. >> reporter: they raced back, and luckily, when they arrived on the scene, a miracle. eus indusow what verdi >> the car was still cool when we got back to it. and hew, holley is a

horse" ripping off an riff. eus indusow what verdi are you for how muc e t p b, th mom with a message. >> if this could happen to our family, when we firmly believed it never could, then it absolutely can happen to anyone. >> reporter: but many parents aren't so lucky. more than 900 children have died in hot cars since 1990, with 25 deaths this year alone. 2018 was the deadliest year on record, with 52 hot car deaths across the u.s. >> so i think most parents, whether they will admit it or not, have a deep, sinking fear that this could happen to their family. >> reporter: now the mom turned activist is working to make sure no other parent has a close call like she did. >> knowing that it is preventible makes it completely unbearable. that we continue to see children dying in the back seat of cars. >> reporter: erin is part of an organization called kids in cars which advocates for tougher children's safety measures in the auto industry. janette fennel is the founder.

fennel has dedicated her life to making sure the auto industry implements those changes. >> what is the difference between life and death of a child? i think they should be doing everything dthey can to prevent these absolutely heartbreaking tragedies. >> reporter: july is the most common month for hot car deaths, with the most occurring on a thursday or friday. on an 88 degree day, the inside of a car can reach a deadly temperature of 125 degrees in less than an hour. >> leaving her 1-year-old daughter to die in a hot car. >> the fourth child to die no floriin florida. >> reporter: a series of devastating headlines across the country this summer has prompted outrage, prompting many to wonder why these preventible deaths keep happening. >> the biggest mistake you can gooca sce make is thinking it can't happen to you. an infant forgotten in a car on >> reporter: juan rodriguez was a hot summer day, trapped in the arrested after his twins died in

deadly heat. now a group of moms macedo. his accord. he thought he dropped the maybies babies at day care before going to work. it wasn't until ten minutes into his drive home that he realized his mistake. he faces criminally negligent homicide, but today a twist in the investigation. prosecutors are putting the case on hold. the emotional father was seen holding his 4-year-old son after court. his grieving wife beside him maintains the incident was an accident, not a crime. >> mr. rodriguez and his family will certainly be dedicating their life to the cause of ensuring that this does not happen to anyone else again. >> reporter: the family is now pushing to pass a new york state law to mandate all new vehicles be equipped with technology to alert parents that children are in the car, something their car did not have. >> there is no reason, no excuse for the auto industry to oppose this legislation. it's common sense. >> reporter: democratic senator

richard blumenthal from connecticut has been pushing for similar federal legislation for years. he says finally some auto makers like gm, nissan and hyundai are getting on board voluntarily. gm says some models have rear seat technology, and by 2020 all models will. the rogue, the altima has alerts. the alert is displayed on the dashboard, reminding the driver to check the back seat. but fennel says most car makers are not going far enough. >> the key is, any technology that is added to the vehicle should detect the presence of a il e o a santa fe and palisade and a telluride where the kia and hyundai vehicles go that extra step that we need in

walk away, ifn back seat or row if you have that, the vehicle, after 20 seconds, it will start beeping and the lights will start blinking. so everybody would know that there's a child at peril. >> reporter: fennel has been an early supporter of bills like blumenthal's. >> what we're asking for is for new vehicles to come with a new feature. and all we're asking it to do is to detect the presence of a child. look at the number of safety features in this vehicle. you know, we've both got a bud if we didn't put on our seat belt. or it will tell us if the door's ajar, or if you leave the keys in the ignition, or don't forget to check the tire pressure. >> or fu lea . >> reporter: or ifoutsai a seco. ity to have a dead baby but not a dead battery?

>> reporter: when we initially buckled my baby in, he was crying. it seems really easy to remember he's there. but we just pulled out and he is already asleep. >> that's right. and there's those little quiet, unobtrusive, precious cargo in the back seat. >> reporter: i looked into this and came up with a list of at least ten different products that claim to help but this. as a consumer, how hard is it to choose the right one? >> i guess you need to do a little research. i don't think everybody can test every product. >> reporter: we chose two. one is a sensor you can put on any car seat. the other, a feature on the popular driving app, waze. >> so we go here. and we go to settings. and then scroll down to reminders. and then the child reminder. you want to make sure that it is on. and then here you can say whatever you want the reminder to be. here mine says check for child in back seat. done. >> you've arrived at your destination. >> let's see if waze wants to

tell us that we have a baby in the bseat. >> reporter: and waze just reminded me. check for child in the back seat. next we tried the seat sensor. how does it work? >> you put the pad underneath the child, so it's sensing the weight. and then you have the receiver on your driver's seat. and it senses as soon as you open that door. >> reporter: we tried it out. and as soon as i opened the door, i heard this. >> occupant detected in car seat. please remove child from the seat. >> reporter: it's pretty clear. pretty cool. >> and it's very specific. it tells you what you need to do immediately. >> reporter: car seats are also incorporating technology to alert parents when a child is left behind. right now only two companies have models on the market, even flo and side bex. the evenflo sells for around

$120. the cybex sells for around $300. >> we're fallible. >> reporter: when i put the call out for advice on social media, parents offered up their own homemade hacks. many said leaving something critical in the back seat is the first, like a purse or wallet. megan suggested leave your phone in the back seat next to baby. another mother posted, take off your left shoe when you get in the car if the baby is with you, when you reach your destination, you're not going to walk out with a barefoot. put a big stuffed animal in the car seat. whenever you put your child in the car seat move the stuffed animal to the front seat of your car. >> this is a vulnerability that affects people from every walk of life and that no one is fully protected against it unless they t aays lan in place to always have to pay.they lock.>>p ne, t

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katy perry's hit song "dark horse" earned her lots of awards and lots of money. the singer's smash sensation is going to cost her. here's rebecca jarvis. >> reporter: katy perry's "dark

horse", one of the biggest hits of 2013. more than 13 million copies worldwide. racking up more than 2 billion views on youtube. performed live at the super bowl. >> katy perry! >> reporter: the music video even won the 2014 mtv best female video award. for now it appears that the party is officially over. perry and her team found guilty of copyright infringement. a jury today awarding christian rapper marcus gray $2.78 millio the estimated millionrofit e recmade. gray who goes by flame

that she told the riff from "joyful noise", to create one of the underlying beats for "dark horse." let's play that again. here's one. here's the other. gray first filed the lawsuit against perry in 2014, saying that his song's memorable beat had been stolen. while perry's team argued in court that gray was trying to own basic building blocks of music that could hurt all songwriters. >> very rare that you're going to hear some completely esoteric melody in a pop song, because that kind of defeats the definition of pop. >> reporter: gray's legal team spoke to us tonight about the decision. >> my clients feel vindicated. they feel that they've received justice. >> reporter: perry's attorneys issuing a statement tonight, saying in part, the writers of "dark horse" view the verdicts as a travesty of justice.

we will continue to fight at all appropriate levels to rectify the injustice. but determining whether or not a song was inspired by another or plagiarized is a tricky one. >> you have experts on both sides testifying that it is substantially similar, it's not substantially similar. and then the jurors have to, in the end, weigh in as the final word. orr:erry and hercoutho testifie the millions of plays "joyful noise" had on youtube and spotify and the grammy nomination his christian album received, saying perry race tcem could have heard the song and citing her christian roots. >> there's no question that this verdict and others like it are sending a loud message to big-time music stars.

you better be careful. ♪ ice, ice baby >> reporter: remember this classic '80s beat from a mr. vanilla ice? >> reporter: ice ice baby was a platinum hit, but to some that beat might sound too familiar. ♪ >> reporter: david bowie and queen thought so, at least and presre."ement of "undersufor pur ♪ >> repor ultimately settled out of court. there's also ed sheeran's 2014 song "thinking out loud." ♪ take me into your lovin' arms ♪ >> reporter: and marvin gaye's hit, "let's get it on." the estate of marvin gaye's co-writers sued sheeran for $100 million in 2016, again for

copyright infringement which sheeran has denied. the trial date is set for september of this year. this isn't the first trial that's involved a marvin gaye song. singer robin thicke and pharrell williams found themselves in court after a lawsuit was brought on by the gaye family whether "blurred lines" ripped off "gottagive it up", heard on soul train. i took it to a music producer and instructor, chris preti. >> this is the marvin gaye version. and here's the beginning of "blurs lines." ♪ >> reporter: and this is the heart of the argument. >> you would have thought it was "blurred lines." >> reporter: and the jury must have thought so, too. the jury awarded marvin gaye's

family millions after they determined that they did indeed copy marvin gaye's music. a big upset to the defense. >> nothing detracts from the fact that we know it, that the song "blurred lines" came from the heart and soul of pharrell williams and no one else. >> reporter: as the lines between music tracks continue to blur. >> katy, did you use music or rhythm's from flame's song? >> it will embolden people to, you know, who may not really have a case to pursue one, and, you know, there are some statistic, i think it was eight out of the ten songsom grmy son. so people smell money. >> reporter: artists may have to create tunes on wholly original ideas or be >> our thanks to rebecca,

welcome back. up next, the dream come true for one special flight attendant. defeating the odds by flying higher. with cancer, when he was diagnosed his team at ctca created a personalized care plan to treat his cancer and side effects. so job could continue to work and stay strong for his family. this is how we inspire hope. this is how we heal. we love you, daddy. good night. i love you guys. cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now. laso you can enjoy it even ifst you're sensitive. se. yet some say it isn't real milk. i guess those cows must actually be big dogs. sit! i said sit! cake in the conference room! showing 'em you're ready... to be your own boss. that's the beauty of your smile. crest's three dimensional whitening... ...removes stains,... ...whitens in-between teeth...

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and finally, one star flight attendant's dream flight. here's abc's david muir. >> reporter: shawn tell poozer has always dreamed of being a flight attendant. here she is at the airport getting a hug. here she is with the pilot behind her. this was the flight she had taken so often for medical treatment. she has down syndrome and a respiratory disease. this was the moment a dream came true. they named her honorary flight attendant. >> thank you for your attention, enjoy your flight. >> reporter: it was shawnee helping people prepare. she smiled even better than what she was serving. >> her smile will light up the room. >> reporter: and listen to the captain talking about shawnee as one of his three flight attendants. and how nher family says it has

powered her through surgery. she is recovering tonight. and her mother is grateful for that surprise on board that flight. >> it's important to celebrate her now. she needs to see the love and support that she h. >>hat smile is so contagious. keep flying high. that's "nightline" for tonight. when you can't stay up with us, so this is how it's you are gonna say: you'll get the best deal of the year on xfinity tv and internet! then she goes:

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