Re: your friendly correspondent from the US presents: Free Sampling Killed by Court of Appeals

David Haworth wrote:
> Supposing you wrote some sheet music that sounded similar to the
> "real thing" but was in fact totally different. I suggest transforms
> like changing the key, converting 4/4 time to 8/8 and then doubling
> all the individual notes, and others. No doubt those skilled in musical
> notation could suggest more or better transformations.
>
> Then suppose you added some lyrics that also sounded similar to the real
> thing but were entirely different. Like perhaps "Yes turd hay. Awl 
> mite rubble seamed sew farrier weigh."
> 
> Finally, you get a group of competent musicians dedicated to the
> downfall of the recording industry cartel to record it. What would be
> your chances of getting sued? Of winning in court? After all, your
> "similar" song comes demonstrably from completely different
> sources, no copying whatsoever involved.
> 
> Hell, if you got in fast enough you could even sue THEM for infringement.
> 
> Note for the weary: this comment has been brought to you by the letters
> :)  and ;-) and the number =:-D ...
> 
> ....or has it?
> 
> Dave (in a rather silly mood brought on by lack of alcohol)

I guess you're talking about doing a cover version which isn't quite
exactly a cover version?

Cover versions seem to have their own rules (i.e. you don't need
permission, but the original artist/composer gets paid some fixed
amount).  There seems to be copyright in the recording, and then
separately in the lyrics; I'm not sure about the melody, chords,
rhythms, etc.

One of the work-arounds for people using unclearable samples are
companies that offer to recreate that 5-second sample from scratch for
you to make it sound near-identical.  For example, that was done for
one of the Prodigy's recent album tracks, where they sampled Michael
Jackson.

So, this is a kind of reverse-engineering, clone, reimplementation
process, and that seems okay somehow.  Maybe in 5-10 seconds of audio
there isn't enough lyrics to trigger copyright problems, and
everything else has been recreated, so the recording copyright hasn't
been broken.

Another key question may be whether under the existing cover version
conventions, you can make a cover version straight away?  If so, it
seems like an opportunity to bring some competition into the music
business (but would require entrepreneurial spirit and plenty of
connections and funding to make it happen).

Jim

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