At 11:38 PM 7/21/2003 -0400, you wrote:
quoted 13 lines Derek, I'd have to disagree with you that using a familiar (even popular)>Derek, I'd have to disagree with you that using a familiar (even popular)
>melody only amounts to a cheap attempt at cashing in on the original
>creators popularity. Whether sampling, copying or just intentionally
>trying to evoke someone else's sound, you're making a reference to
>something and odds are, the person listening already has associations and
>ideas related to what you're sampling/copying/evoking so it goes beyond
>simply being a rip-off artist. It could be Carl Stalling cutting and
>pasting 2 or 3 bars of other peoples music into his warner brother cartoon
>scores or it could be Jimmy Page being a show off and inserting a bit of a
>Bach fugue (or whatever it is on that new live CD) into a guitar solo, but
>these kind of things boil down to something more complex than simply
>stealing someone elses shit. Umm.. yea... I'm not sure where I'm going
>with this so I'll just pass the mic or whatever.
ah, dude, weak!
yeah, there's a difference. The difference being that an homage or a nod
to pop culture or something intentional and serious will more than likely
mean that if you intend to make money off of it, you'd be more than happy
to get in contact with the person in question and ask their permission. If
I ape a popular track because it's popular and I want to ride its coattails
without paying up, I'm screwed. And if I happen to use a melody or drum
pattern or whatever in my own tracks, that's not a big deal as long as I
don't use the original. The amen break isn't copyrighted, but the
recording of the original one is. I can buy drums and record myself
playing it, but if I buy the record and rip it into my computer and make
mad dark drum 'n bass knockoffs, I better be willing to pay up.
Bach fugues don't count, as that's public domain. We'd be having fewer
problems as it was if Disney wasn't so balls-deep in extending copyright
law indefinitely as more music would end up public domain anyway.
And, of course, a short snippet or a lifted melody is quite different from
full-blown sampling. Melodies and the like aren't copyrightable simply
because they're rather nebulous and are distinct on their own. The vanilla
ice thing worked because he was able to prove that his thing *was*
different, and that's what the courts care about. If it's different (for
example, a guitar bit that was originally a trumpet from some kenny-g
album), it's not really the same, is it? If I'm not stealing it, and I'm
not making a cover, then I'm not in trouble.
derek
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