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from the Gets-worse-before-it-can-get-better dept.
How low can copyright law go? Much further if the current lawsuits being flung around are any indication. Ed Sheeran is taking a hiatus to deal with a copyright claim from Sam Chokri against his song Shape Of You. The suit accuses Sheeran of stealing the Chorus from the song Oh Why after Chokri voluntarily submitted it to Sheeran's management. The resemblance between the tracks is said to be 'very slight', but this is not the first time Sheeran has been challenged in this matter, with the previous accusation being resolved by adding songwriting credits for parts borrowed from TLC's No Scrubs. Sam Smith caved in to Tom Petty's claim that his song Stay with me was in some way related to I Want Back Down, which must take a musician to spot, while Katy Perry lost a suit filed by a Christian hip hop artist who claimed that her song Dark Horse infringed on Joyful Noise due to that they both have "a slightly similar sharp stabbing synth and a basic trap beat" which resulted in Petty's lawyer commenting that “they’re trying to own basic building blocks of music, the alphabet of music that should be available to everyone.” With these big names being taken down by claims of similarity of the "feel" of the music this may be the beginning of the end of the music industry shooting itself in the foot.
Money better spent on hookers and blow.
See also, the short story Melancholy Elephants by Spider Robinson.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 09 2019, @03:39AM (4 children)
I mean, Ghostbusters had nothing to do with I Want a New Drug. Ice, Ice Baby and Under Pressure were completely different compositions with absolutely no relation. Goldiblocks owed nothing to Beastie Boys. The Beach Boys ripping off Chuck Berry. Fogerty and CCR, which was a successful defense. Radiohead vs. Del Rey, still litigating but there's no way one can listen to Del Rey and not hear the verses' rhythm and melody are straight lifts of Creep.
For every Thicke / Gaye controversy where something might not quite be right (and keeping in mind that one started in the legal realm with Thicke and Williams going after Gaye and not the other way around,) you can find several others that have merit. And you get Petty versus Smith where the choruses have a lot more in common than just a beat line but a near identical melody intonation.
In other words, while there can differences and it ain't perfect, nor is there anything generally wrong. Artists should be held responsible when their creations don't, er, blur the lines well enough to a major predecessor work.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday September 09 2019, @11:49AM (2 children)
What steps should Sam Smith and Katy Perry have taken to discover their misappropriation before recording it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 09 2019, @06:43PM (1 child)
For cases like Parker, Vanilla Ice, Smith, and Del Rey it's pretty simple: The problem wasn't recording it. It was releasing the production. But for these cases it gets even more simple: Stop ripping off other artists' work without having gotten a clearance first. Most of these cases the artists were well aware that there was an "inspiration" behind it and it isn't a stretch from the outside perspective to know it's more than "inspiration" (go listen to Radiohead and Del Rey and tell me what you think). So, don't hire all yes-(wo)men for your entourage and producer - have someone who has the courage to say, "Hey, that sounds more than a little bit like ___________." Plus a little self-awareness that when you intentionally start copying the style of others you should remain humble and circumspect about the possibility that society (in the form of a court) may not agree with your opinion how close or far away it is. So again: get a clearance. Get an expert opinion if you must, but that usually isn't necessary because...
And also keep in mind that for the most part the standard judgment in these suits is either a negotiated settlement and/or the copied party simply gets a songwriting credit (often a shared credit with the copier so they actually share in the proceeds of the song). That's compensation for having taken the work of the original songwriter. It's very rare for an artist to demand a compensation of pulling a record from play entirely and very hard to get that (because even the copy likely does have original elements to it).
For Thicke: Don't file pre-emptive lawsuits trying to prove you're original just because someone says you copied. Wait for the lawsuit, if any. Because yes the law can unfairly backfire.
For Fogerty: Do what he did. Bring in your guitar / prove that there's no relationship beyond the fact you've still got the same voice you're singing with.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday September 16 2019, @02:37PM
Technically correct. So what steps should Sam Smith and Katy Perry have taken to discover their misappropriation before releasing it?
What steps should Sam Smith and Katy Perry have taken to prevent them from accidentally "ripping off other artists' work"? In addition, what steps should less-capitalized recording artists take to prevent same?
What steps should an indie recording artist take to determine from whom a clearance is necessary for each song? And after having determined from whom, what steps should an indie artist take to convince the person responsible for approving clearances to approve the clearance as opposed to refusing it? Clearance is not compulsory. MARRS ran into refusal to provide clearance in certain territories for certain samples used in the song "Pump Up the Volume", causing the mix to end up severely watered down in several territories.
Giving up a share of the songwriting credit works within the music industry, but not for use of music in audiovisual works. For example, the release of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda had to be delayed when a copyright infringement was discovered at the last minute with the music used on its title screen. Discovering it any later may have caused Maurice Ravel's estate to take ownership of Nintendo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 09 2019, @01:25PM
I agree with most of that except Ice Ice Baby.
That base riff is just the same. Such that most people can't distinguish those songs until the words start.
It might not be a big deal is that base riff wasn't the entirety of the song for much of both songs.