NYT draws the wrong conclusions. In each of these cases, the jury sided with the more popular and well known party. These were all jury cases where perceived career accomplishment is the common thread, as the law itself twists in any way necessary.
The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up
101–110 of 124 posts
Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Roughly 40% of the lyrics are dialogue from two of his movies or describing scenes from those movies (Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs), so a 40% cut of the songwriters' share of royalties is appropriate.
He didn't write any of the song. He just made something that contributed to it. Saying he wrote part of it is like the person who mixed Davinci's paint claiming to have painted part of the Mona Lisa.
It's more like if Mona Lisa incorporated a background from another artist.
Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up
#103NYT draws the wrong conclusions. In each of these cases, the jury sided with the more popular and well known party. These were all jury cases where perceived career accomplishment is the common thread, as the law itself twists in any way necessary.
The “Dark Horse” case didn’t seem to break for Katy Perry...
Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no rule against pay walled content, and most NYT stories have numerous people complaining about it. The NYT and WSJ posts still get votes because they're large enough that many people are subscribers, and their paywalls are trivial to bypass.
The workarounds for WSJ do not work anymore for me, eg the redirect from FarceBorg will still get the "subscribe" page. Also FT. They appear to have removed workarounds. Are they STILL valid HN submissions ... even when there is NO workaround? Or maybe there is one and i haven't twigged to it yet:-)>
Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up
#105A reasonable thing would be to consider "fair use" as any clip less than, say, 10 seconds.
I don't see how that is helpful. Blurred Lines was about the whole song, but where it had similarities, not an exact copy.
Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
My least favourite was Quentin Tarantino demanding a songwriting credit for Fun Lovin' Criminals' Scooby Snacks, just because it sampled a few seconds of dialogue from Pulp Fiction.
At least in that case and the Blurred Lines case there was some component that was verifiably the same. (But yeah, QT was and is a jerk. Especially when you consider how he ripped off City on Fire.)
What component was veritably the same in the Blurred Lines case? I've listened to both songs and the 'sameness' to my ears is akin to two rock tunes using similar power chords and drum beat.
Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up
#107I wonder how well the 1987 album [1] would do in this new climate? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_(What_the_Fuck_Is_Going_O...
I've told this story before. In the early 1990s I worked for Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond's record label, back when they were dominating the UK and European pop charts as The KLF ( https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/07/20/537708922/... ). One day we received in the mail a cassette tape and a letter from a law firm representing a composer or publisher (I can't remember which) of a famous Broadway soundtrack…
Was it Jesus Christ Superstar? I actually do hear the similarity but I wouldn't call it a ripoff either. I love the KLF!!
Riff starts on the beginning of both tunes.
Jesus Christ Supertar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqoeM18vCaU
What Time is Love? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28w2LVzxVkU
Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up
#108Zeppelin have long been known to be notorious plagiarists: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/led-zeppelins-...
I think I saw a news recently that they've been dismissed for gateway to heaven
I agree with all the arguments in this thread about Stairway to Heaven but also feel like for similar reasons the Blurred Lines case should have been dismissed.
Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up
#109What really interesting about Blurred Lines is that it was more the feeling of the music than the actual note for note, which was the center of the discussion. If you don't understand music and what it entails you could be convinced that it was the same. Such an interesting case.
Yeah, it was getting close to copyrighting a genre . Very dangerous stuff.
Exactly, I immediately thought of all the bog standard country, rock and blues songs.
Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
He did demand royalties, he gets a 40% cut as well.
Roughly 40% of the lyrics are dialogue from two of his movies or describing scenes from those movies (Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs), so a 40% cut of the songwriters' share of royalties is appropriate.
Sets a pretty stupid precedent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX1iIx-LMYM
This song's lyrics solely samples audio from Indiana Jones - 100% of the royalties go to Disney? Morally, I don't think Disney have any right to it, but I could maybe tolerate some payment - however, proportionality?