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The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up

nytimes.com

21–30 of 124 posts

Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up

#21

Shocked the story didn't mention the Fogerty suit - the strangest copyright -music case of all https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/27501/time-john-fogerty-...

Something weird going on with that page! The article number in the URL changes back and forward between 2 numbers as you scroll! Makes coming back to HN a bit tricky!

Interesting read though

Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up

#22
post #5

Zeppelin 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

Stairway is not a ripoff of Taurus and it never was going to be, but there are plenty of other accusations against Led Zeppelin that are more credible. I have Spirit’s eponymous album, the part in question that is “ripped off” is so basic and found in so many songs you’d die before you could list them all.

(FYI—You the news you “think you saw recently” is in the linked article above the fold, which features a photo of Robert Plant right next to the headline.)

Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up

#23

I 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...

At least with streaming you won't have to go through the trouble of pulling physical copies from stores and destroying them.

It's sad though that file sharing is no longer a big thing, since that allowed illegal remix culture to really thrive.

Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up

#24
post #20

All of these NYT stories bring up a blocking modal dialog requiring me to log in or create an account (I guess this is a slight improvement from making me pay). Is this the same for everyone else? Why do other sites that show a dismissable overlay get raked over the coals as if they are criminals? What value is there in posting a link on HN if it's behind a pay (or temporarily free) wall? This goes double for the WSJ…

If you’re paywalled on NYT you’ve already viewed many articles. You can clear your cookies or you might be interested in subscribing since you seem to enjoy their content.

I don't buy this, there must be some false positive rate in some of these sites. I've been told that I've viewed too many articles on sites I've never visited before.

It's happened at home too where I live alone and have not seen my IP address change in a very long time.

Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up

#25

If I repeatedly linked to my own site with a title that interested you but all you could see on my page was an unskippable ad demanding that you sign up and pay for my unrelated product, wouldn’t my site be banned from HN? Why do sites like nytimes get a free pass with their paywalls?

Papers of record/highly reputable sources should be held to a different standard.

Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up

#26
post #5

Zeppelin have long been known to be notorious plagiarists: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/led-zeppelins-...

They outright covered songs in those early albums, but refused to pay royalties. I don't remember what their argument was.

Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up

#27

All of these NYT stories bring up a blocking modal dialog requiring me to log in or create an account (I guess this is a slight improvement from making me pay). Is this the same for everyone else? Why do other sites that show a dismissable overlay get raked over the coals as if they are criminals? What value is there in posting a link on HN if it's behind a pay (or temporarily free) wall? This goes double for the WSJ…

This is a good point that Hacker News aren't generally aware of (judging by the number of comments about it, it's good to know I'm not alone). I'm not sure why it was flagged.

Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up

#28
post #21

Shocked the story didn't mention the Fogerty suit - the strangest copyright -music case of all https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/27501/time-john-fogerty-...

Something weird going on with that page! The article number in the URL changes back and forward between 2 numbers as you scroll! Makes coming back to HN a bit tricky! Interesting read though

In my case it changes when the next article comes up. This is a really weird page format some online news magazines have adopted, where they simply add different articles at the bottom of your original page, infinite scrolling style. If you scroll back up though, it switches back.

Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up

#29

I 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...

In the 80s sampling was kinda a gray area. But by the 90s all samples were cleared, or too obtuse to figure out the source.... I guess the British were ahead of the US in this.

"In 1991, songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan sued rapper Biz Markie after he sampled O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)" on the album I Need a Haircut. The court ruled that sampling without permission infringed copyright. Instead of asking for royalties, O'Sullivan forced Biz Markie's label Warner Bros to recall the album until the song was removed.

Nelson George described it as the "most damaging example of anti-hip hop vindictiveness", which "sent a chill through the industry that is still felt".[39] The Washington Post wrote in 2018 that "no court decision has changed the sound of pop music as much as this", likening it to banning a musical instrument"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(music)#Legal_and_eth...

Re: The ‘Blurred Lines’ case scared songwriters, but its time may be up

#30
post #6

My (least) favourite example of this is that Iggy Azalea gets a song-writing credit for Classic Man. http://www.mtv.com/news/2215334/iggy-azalea-fancy-classic-ma... If you listen to the two, you can spot the similarity but... it’s nowhere close to sampling or plagiarism. They’ve got different melodies, different feels, just a similar prominent keyboard sound. But no-one wants a court case, so the writers of Fancy get…

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.
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