SoylentNews

$7.4 Million Verdict in Blurred Lines Case Likely to Alter Music Business

posted by LaminatorX on Friday March 13 2015, @03:48PM   
from the let's-get-it-on dept.

Hugh Pickens writes:

The Washington Post reports that the $7.4 million verdict that Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke copied Marvin Gaye’s music to create their hit song “Blurred Lines” could ripple across the music industry, potentially changing how artists work and opening the door to new copyright claims. Howard King, lead attorney for Thicke and Williams, said in closing arguments that a verdict for the Gaye family would have a chilling effect on musicians trying to evoke an era or create an homage to the sound of earlier artists. Williams contended during the trial that he was only trying to mimic the “feel” of Gaye’s late 1970s music but insisted he did not use elements of his idol’s work. “Today’s successful verdict, with the odds more than stacked against the Marvin Gaye estate, could redefine what copyright infringement means for recording artists,” says Glen Rothstein, an intellectual property attorney. King says record labels are going to become more reluctant to release music that’s similar to other works—an assertion disputed by Richard Busch, the lead attorney for the Gaye family. “While Mr. Williams's lawyer suggested in his closing argument that the world would come to an end, and music would cease to exist if they were found liable, I still see the sun shining,” says Busch. “The music industry will go on.”

Music copyright trials are rare, but allegations that a song copies another artist’s work are common. Singers Sam Smith and Tom Petty recently reached an agreement that conferred songwriting credit to Petty on Smith’s song, “Stay With Me,” which resembled Petty’s hit “I Won’t Back Down.” Other music copyright cases include Former Beatle George Harrison's 1970 solo song "My Sweet Lord" which had a melody heavy with echoes of "He's So Fine," the 1962 hit from The Chiffons. The copyright owner sued Harrison. A judge said that while the tunes were nearly identical, Harrison was guilty only of "subconscious plagiarism." Harrison would eventually pay out $587,000. Probably the most bizarre case of musical infringement was when John Fogerty was accused of stealing from John Fogerty. The Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman was sued for his 1985 solo song "The Old Man Down the Road" because his former label thought it sounded too much like the 1970 Fogerty-penned "Run Through the Jungle," a song it owned the rights to.

• Nothing is original in music - Some Case Studies (Score: 2) by number6 on Saturday March 14 2015, @09:25AM

  by number6 (1831) on Saturday March 14 2015, @09:25AM (#157694) Journal

  tune: "Child In Time" by Deep Purple --vs-- "Bombay Calling" by It's A Beautiful Day

  • Ian Gillan (DP lead singer) has said that "Child in Time" [wikipedia.org] is based on It's a Beautiful Day's psychedelic song "Bombay Calling" [wikipedia.org] . It's a Beautiful Day in return borrowed Purple's "Wring That Neck" and turned it into "Don and Dewey" on their second album Marrying Maiden (1970). Ian Gillan says in a 2002 interview "There are two sides to that song - the musical side and the lyrical side. On the musical side, there used to be this song 'Bombay Calling' by a band called It's A Beautiful Day. It was fresh and original, when Jon was one day playing it on his keyboard. It sounded good, and we thought we'd play around with it, change it a bit and do something new keeping that as a base. But then, I had never heard the original 'Bombay Calling'. So we created this song using the Cold War as the theme, and wrote the lines 'Sweet child in time, you'll see the line.' That's how the lyrical side came in. Then, Jon had the keyboard parts ready and Ritchie had the guitar parts ready. The song basically reflected the mood of the moment, and that's why it became so popular.

  tunes by the band "Joy Division" --vs-- tunes by others

  • "New Dawn Fades" -vs- "Gimme Danger" by Iggy Pop and the Stooges     //the slowed down bass line after the first chorus
  • "Interzone" -vs- "Keep On Keeping On" by Nolan Porter     //the riff is an unmistakable copy, and the band admits it too.
  • A discussion thread at this forum [websitetoolbox.com]

  Classical Music: "Canon in D" by Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)

  • Pachelbel's Canon is arguably the most popular piece of classical music in the history of humanity. Originally written in 1700 as a short, fast piece for three violins and basso continuo ...... pop music producer Pete Waterman has described Canon in D as "almost the godfather of pop music because we've all used that in our own ways for the past 30 years"
  • List of songs using the Pachelbel chord progression [wikipedia.org]
  • musician/comedian Rob Paravonian playing a humorous medley of popular songs using the Pachelbel chord progression [youtube.com]

  Classical Music: "Moonlight Sonata" by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

  • The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata, is a piano sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1801 and dedicated in 1802 to his pupil, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. It is one of Beethoven's most popular compositions for the piano.
  • An analysis of the Moonlight Sonata and its comparison to musical works which came before it [classicalmusicblog.com]

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		2