If you thought the Blurred Lines lawsuit was crazy

[woodsdenis]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/judge-wants-dr-luke-stand-813992

[MichaelL]

Insanity! The thought of putting this in front of a jury is truly frightening.

[Art Munson]

Fascinating. I read the court doc also. Then again maybe it will be a cure for a lot of the “me too” music out there! 😉

[woodsdenis]

court docs

[Tbone]

Is the beat in Price Tag an actual sampling of Zimba Ku?

I see some saying it is but I can’t quite tell.

Oh and also what happened with that Gaye/Williams one? Did it get appealed? Is that even possible?

[Art Munson]

Yeah, I was wondering if it was sampled but reading the docs seems as if it was copied.

[Art Munson]

Of course if you have a mega hit it’s just the cost of doing business.

I played on the John Lennon Rock N Roll album and that album was solely made to satisfy Chuck Berry copyright infringements.

[Michael Nickolas]

Pretty soon no one will be allowed to put a snare on two and four…

[guscave]

Wow , this is crazy, suing musicians because of similar drum part!! What’s next? suing because you used the same guitar distortion…

[Vlad]

This is an outrage. I can’t tell you how many gigs I have been on where a drummer played this exact beat. I would consider it the same as a person using ‘the’ in a sentence.

Rant finished, the beat IS pretty damn spot on outside of exact drum pitches and an extra kick in the Jessie J track.

[MichaelL]

But…if we’re talking about people taking samples without regard to IP rights, then I say go for it.

Read this:

This Copyright Lawsuit Over Sampled Breakbeats Could Change the Way Music Is Composed

Watch this:

[Vlad]

Perhaps I didn’t read closely enough! If it was illegal sampling then yes, the lawsuit is surely fair game.

[woodsdenis]

This particular case is about the actual beat, the plaintiffs do not own the sound recording. Ironically the actual sample has been used many times on hip hop tracks.

[MichaelL]

This particular case is about the actual beat, the plaintiffs do not own the sound recording. Ironically the actual sample has been used many times on hip hop tracks.

This is why putting it front of jury scares me. IMO Twelve average people are not the best method of discerning the nuances of copyright law.

Generally a “beat,” that is not a sampled recording, is beyond the purview of copyright protection because it’s too generic. The chances that Zimba Ku were the absolute originators of this beat are minimal. But, whether or not a jury will be able to grasp why that matters is another question.

[woodsdenis]

This is why putting it front of jury scares me. IMO Twelve average people are not the best method of discerning the nuances of copyright law.

Generally a “beat,” that is not a sampled recording, is beyond the purview of copyright protection because it’s too generic. The chances that Zimba Ku were the absolute originators of this beat are minimal. But, whether or not a jury will be able to grasp why that matters is another question.

I totally agree, another angle on the case is that maybe the “sampled” usage was actually licensed from the record company and legit whereas this case is about composition and a very big record. Where theres a hit theres a writ, as they say.

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