Copyright infringement

[bbastos]

Hello

I uploaded an instrumental song into a music library (which was approved), and I need some information about copyright.

The song was created and inspired by a famous song. The harmonic structure, chords progression, and melodies of my song are different from this famous song. I wonder if there is the possibility of my song be denounced as copyright infringement, based solely on the rhythm and the instruments used.

Thanks!

[Art Munson]

It most likely would only be an issue if it was huge moneymaker and someone thought they had a case. But, I am not a lawyer. MichaelL might have some more to say on the subject.

[music_pro]

You can only copyright melody, that’s all.

[DavidSharp]

Re only copyright melody – that’s not true in the UK.

This implies, which I know that many people think, that if you change the melody a bit but keep the same chords, arrangement, structure and rhythm then it’s OK

As a creator of an original piece you are not allowed to plaguralise the creative endevours of another – that’s the law in the UK – the creative endevour can be the chords, arrangement, a key hooky riff etc

It’s not about only copying 3 notes or whatever rules of thumb people have decided.

I’ve worked closely with Musicologists to understand all this and I know many people sail very close to the wind often because they don’t know wha the copyright law actually says on this

Regards
David

[MichaelL]

This question cannot be answered adequately here. Just a few quick thoughts:

1) In the US, it would be very difficult to argue that a chord progression is a copyrightable element, because there are few if any totally original chord progressions. Only the parts of a work that are original expressions of the author are protectable. The same can be said of arrangements, and key hooky riffs. And,even then, there are exceptions (library music wouldn’t be one of them).
2) There are several tests that US courts apply including substantial similarity and the ordinary observer test. The first deals with the kind of analysis that a musicologist might provide as evidence. The second is based on the listener’s response, and more or less whether or not they hear/recognize/respond to the alleged infringed elements. In other words, if you write a library cue called Monday Bloody Monday, and you copy the chord progession, and other stylistic elements from Sunday Bloody Sunday, and an ordinary observer would think it’s U2, you have a problem.
3) Musicologists are not lawyers. They can provide evidence, but that is different from knowing the law.
As far as your song bbastos. I cannot tell you. Even copying just a bassline may be infringement if it is a central element of the infringed work. Look up Vanilla Ice, Ice Ice Baby and Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie.
As far as merely copying a style goes, without literally registering something a trademark, you cannot protect a style. For example, Miles Davis wasn’t the only trumpet player to use a Harmon mute, and Edge isn’t the only guitarist to use 16th note delays. You can’t have a monopoly on that sort of expression.

_Michael

[bbastos]

Thanks guys for clarifying this question for me. I recorded this song just for fun, and then I decided to sell it in a library.

As I am extremely against copyright infringement or misuse of other artists work, the last couple of days I have been thinking about how this song could cause problems, even containing minimal elements of the song in which it was based.

The problem is that the song recalls the famous song and how MichaelL said, any element may be an infringement. And we still have the variable of how the laws are interpreted in each country.

So I think I’ll remove this song from the library.

[MichaelL]

@bbastos… just to clarify: copying, or being “inspired by” a work is one thing and writing in a “style” is another. There isn’t a trailer composer on the planet who isn’t “inspired” by Two Steps from Hell.

As Mark Lewis pointed out in another thread, a long time ago, it’s possible to produce soemthing in Jimi Hendrix’s style without actually copying one of his songs.

I’ve written in John Williams’s style without actually copying one of his works. (Of course, Williams is writing in the style of, and often quoting, a lot of long dead composers whose works are PD, which is a possible defense to infringement)

U2 and Coldplay are probably the two most immitated bands in the library world. So far, no one has posted any warnings about receiving cease and desist letters. (Which doesn’t mean that you won’t get sued if you copy one of their songs too closely). It may just be that none of the immitations has had a high profile placement, or been detected by tunesat. (it’s getting harder to go unnoticed)

I’m not advising you to go ahead and immitate a style, but it is different than copying a specific work.

_Michael

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