Only replace Lawyer (also known as Laywer ) with Lawyers.
Oh dear, did copy and paste fail me again? Well, at least SOMEONE'S paying attention......... 
Oh dear, did copy and paste fail me again?
It must be a bug.
Well, at least SOMEONE'S paying attention.........
I'm sure that's kinda how it went when Bill Gates was working on the first version of Windows.
Only replace Lawyer (also known as Laywer ) with Lawyers.
And replace Composer with Programmers.
Sorry, you can't do that without permission of the copyright holder (me). And I'm not sure a parody of a parody can be considered a derivative work. Thus, "you have been warned".
IS THERE A LAYWER (sic) IN THE HOUSE?
Sorry, you can't do that without permission of the copyright holder (me). And I'm not sure a parody of a parody can be considered a derivative work. Thus, "you have been warned".
Goddamn it!!!
Not again!
When I get out...
...I'm gonna get you ski.
You're gonna pay.
And, oh yeah, is there a laywer in the house??? Perhaps a pubic defender? I aint got no monies.
This is well interesting it reminds me of when those Sid chip guys tried suing Timberland, he said "it ain't stealing, stealing is if I break into your house and take your pro tools" lol
The question of "what constitutes plagiarism" is definitely a tricky one. Here's a story from a composer friend of mine who was asked to write a "sound alike" of a famous piece by a classical composer whose music is still under copyright. There was a musicologist on the gig, hired to evaluate the pieces he and a team of other composers were writing for that project (they were all "sound alikes").
After he submitted the piece, the musicologist came back and basically told him to go back to the drawing board; while the melody and chord progressions weren't infringing on the original piece, what my friend wrote was to much "in the spirit" of the original. And he cited court cases where infringement was declared for this very nebulous concept of "spirit".
I find this fascinating, ski! How can that be possible? How can something be too "in the spirit" to warrant paranoia over lawsuits, while having distinct melody and harmony? "in the spirit" sounds just too subjective with a big fat slipery slope coming out its ass. That's wild. I wonder if that musicologist was bit over the top in that call.
I remember once at music house, I joined in helping some the staff determine if one of thier pieces to be sold was too much like Ligeti's Lontano (or was it lux aterna?). Of course there is no "key" or "melody" or "harmony" in the piece, and the music house writer was nowhere near the level of Ligeti, but he made some nice atmospheric stuff, I thought it was fine, but the lawyer for the house said no.
It's a dynamic line. Always in flux.
oh! And remember the Satriani coldplay debacle. I wrote a little paper on that.
I think Satriani had his head so far up his ass on that one.
wow
I find this fascinating, ski! How can that be possible? How can something be too "in the spirit" to warrant paranoia over lawsuits, while having distinct melody and harmony? "in the spirit" sounds just too subjective with a big fat slipery slope coming out its ass. That's wild. I wonder if that musicologist was bit over the top in that call.
He very well could have made a bad call, but from what I remember from the tale, he said that there was legal precedent for this. I'm no lawyer, so I dunno.
Always in flux.
Good one!
Yeah, maybe there's "the law" and then there's "paranoia". Who knows, who knows...
- 1 month later...
I can hear the similarity but I think it's all a bit ridiculous. But then maybe I'm biased I've used a lot of samples in my music. I don't think it's a blatant copy or anything, but then I'm sure Jessie J's team can afford it at the end of the day
No one owns our notes, we have only like 12 pitch names, we vary them in rhythm, melody, harmonics, and dynamics. Every melody has already been made, we just happen to copy them not on purpose, but because we all have all the melodies inculcated in our musical mind since we were born. lyrics can be plagiarised, but not melodies. you are an idiot for claiming a chord progression, tune, etc is your own property.
- 2 years later...
Hey Guys,
Following up on this reasonably old but fascinating thread - I can't find any evidence of anything coming out of this Jessie J dispute after the initial flurry of news, which leads me to the conclusion that either Mr Loomis wanted a bit of publicity (which he got) or he got a bit of money from Ms. J to drop his claim. Who knows.
Anyway, more musical plagiarism news. This time Robin Thicke & Pharrell Williams v. The Marvin Gaye Estate. This isn't a new case but it just took an interesting turn with the judge ordering a trial by jury to decide the outcome:
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29846755
eek!
- 4 weeks later...
This infringement case is clearly ridiculous, as are the majority of them, it's the equivalent of patent trolling, unfortunately, because it's subjective, it allows lawyers to make someone believe that have a case. Like suing mc-d because the coffee didn't say it's hot - so what's the definition of hot.
Or you get the other side of the coin we (corp x, estate y) have a lot of money, so we'll sue anyone for anything, and literally get away with anything.
You could look at the two examples shown and if one was a lawyer go the reductio ad absurdum route, eg lets only claim one bar was similar, then someone will make it to the max, we're claiming that - that one note sounds the same, it's an infringement on the spirit.
Further, if one looks at the first melody line, i bet you, if you took all the music ever made, that same melody is already there, it might be from Bach, it might be from Shostakovitch or from whoever, but you can be sure it's been done.
So then it's begs a question - who exactly is the plagiarist?
And where does this all end up - only the large corps benefit, only the large corps will make music, because every independent will be fearful of being sued for even writing a single note, and to coin a phrase - that will be the day the music dies.
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