Blog
New Compulsory License & The USPTO Green Paper Roundtable at Vanderbilt Law School - May 21, 2014
A Compulsory License to Sample Master Recordings is a very good idea. A fair, respectful and business-happy aspect of this license would be that a recording MUST be at least ten (10) years old. That way, the recording has had ample time to be sold in its original form, sales of the original recording have greatly decreased (or stopped), a new version will draw attention to the original version, the public has more art and options, and money will be generated from the rebirth of a 10 year old recording.
Blind Lemon Jefferson - The Big Bang Of Blues
Many songs in addition to "That's All Right" and "Matchbox" can be traced to Blind Lemon Jefferson who in turn learned many songs from his contemporaries and those who came before him. Authorship, sole authorship and copyright were not relevant to many practitioners, songwriters and composers of many styles of music.
Names Of Songs Used As Names Of Bands - Can't Think Of A Name For Your Band, Copy One
Even though many do not believe this, and some even suffer fear and trepidation over the subject of copyright and copyright protection, it is LEGAL and COMMON to copy a name and use it as another name. In fact, copyright does NOT protect names, titles, or short phrases or expressions.
Tracing The Origins Of Blues Songs: Culture Or Copying?
Many songs' origins can be traced to earlier sources and often specific authorship, or authorship as a mighty fortress that had to exert its mighty power, was a foreign concept. Ideas and the expressions of ideas are often regarded as benevolent entities and means by which a society builds its culture.
Dr. Dre Should Have Hired Me
The moral of the story below? Not hiring me can cost money. Dr. Dre hired a musicologist for an opinion on whether he could use a bass line from another song, one that Dr. Dre had not composed. That expert told Dr. Dre that the bass line was not original and therefore Dr. Dre was free to use it. I would have told Dr. Dre that that bass line WAS original and that Dr. Dre should NOT use it. But, Dr. Dre did not consult with me. Dr. Dre took the advice of a different expert witness and it cost him $1.5 million.
Dexter Not Only Murders, He Steals Film Titles
Many episodes of DEXTER are titled after titles of films. I'll repeat the accusatory verbs that could be hurled at the copyright owners of DEXTER by each of the potential plaintiffs below. While to some, referencing a movie title is not a reference/cultural reference/cultural signifier as much as it is an outrageous theft of their intellectual property. There are many who have sued over four (4), three (3) or even two (2) words that have been copied/stolen/referenced/plundered from another source by cutthroat pirates.
Dexter Not Only Murders, He Steals Intellectual Property - Part 1
I am very new to the great Showtime original series, DEXTER. I "cut the cord," got Netflix and am now a proud Netflix sheep/minion who watches television based to a large degree on what's available on Netflix.I was attracted to Netflix because I loved the nature of the Netflix beast - for a reasonable monthly fee, we could watch/ingest anything and everything we wanted, when, where and how we wanted - via 55 inch television, 27 inch iMac, iPad with or without retina display, iPhone, Google Glass or wrist watch, although those latter two are not widely available on Earth as of late December 2013. But Netflix is part of what's right about my intellectual property (IP) demands for life in the 21st century.
Copying & Using Lyrics As Lyrics, Names Of Bands, Magazines & Organizations
I want to mention and briefly discuss the copying of lyrics.Many questions can arise pertaining to the copying of lyrics, questions that can be extremely wide-ranging. For this space today, I am mostly concerned with identifying a few examples of copying that I find constructive, reconstructive and progressive, i.e., these examples of copying do not infringe copyright or constitute laziness on the part of the new author/creator.Why are lyrics copied? Are lyrics copied for some of the same reasons that music is copied? I will pose a few possible answers as to why lyrics are copied:
Buddy Holly stutters. John Lennon stutters. Are their stutters copyrightable expression?
Is a stutter unmusical? Could something as unmusical as a stutter be subject to copyright protection? If a stutter is sung, is it more likely to be musical? If a stutter is musical, is it more likely copyrightable? Could "stutter" be simply a stutter, or a well-crafted, complex vocal articulation that is musical, difficult to reproduce and original expression that is subject to copyright protection?
Why do musicians borrow (from other musicians)?
For many, linking one of these four words - composer, creator, author, songwriter - to a musician might be an enormous leap of faith, and an assignment of talent, creativity and intelligence that all musicians do not, by default, possess. I disagree and feel that a performer has to add original expression to every musical performance especially if the music being performed is notated. This is because notation (in every system from every country I have studied) always requires at the very least a modicum of interpretation, and interpretation requires intentional creating, composing or authoring.
Fair Use, the 2-line rule & my heart tells me it's real
"Fair Use." Fair use is not silly - it's essential. Fair use is the use a copyrighted work (or more than one) without the author's permission. It's what we were forced to do in the American education system. It's not enough that we spouted our views - we needed to COPY and quote others' views as well, and it was unthinkable that we'd go to the trouble of writing to a book publisher to ask for permission, for example, to COPY a few sentences/paragraph from an author and insert it into our original work. This new original work by a student was usually a paper that had to be handed in to a teacher to fulfill an assignment. Asking for permission would take too long. Proper attribution (and copyright notice) for an academic assignment is usually considered a good reason to violate/break/pillage the "Copyright Law of the United States and Related Laws..."
Why Would An Artist Re-Record Portions Of Her/His Own Music?
I want to briefly explore the different means, causes and reasons why music is re-recorded. As always, I welcome readers' input. So far, I have been able to identify more than one dozen reasons to re-record music. This might be tantamount to saying, "more than one dozen categories of re-recorded music." I'm not ready to shout out, "Here is the definitive list of how, why, what, where and when music is re-recorded." For now, this is just a beginning and an interesting pursuit into an area of creativity and originality.
Jonathan Coulton, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Glee and Whose Baby Got Back?
I heard about the Jonathan Coulton v. Glee thing all day yesterday, last night and this morning. As usual the Hollywood Reporter account is the best. Coulton took Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby Got Back and transformed it into a much different composition. Coulton's radical revision is in the same league of radical revision as The Residents' The King And Eye in which they (The Residents) wildly re-imagined famous Elvis Presley songs. Here is one of the tamer re-imagines - The Residents' version of Don't Be Cruel. (I use the word, "re-imagine," so as to heap praise upon this practice which goes far beyond the normal, reserved arranging one often hears in popular music. Earth, Wind & Fire's take on The Beatles' Got To Get You Into My Life is another example but not as wildly reimagined as those by The Residents or Coulton.)
Welcome!
Welcome to EMichaelMusic.com, a place for the exchange of ideas on a multitude of subjects. Because I am paying for this website and registered it, and you just discovered its existence, I’ll start...Is it OK for a songwriter or composer to copy music and/or lyrics from someone else?Do you have a favorite example of a songwriter/composer copying music and/or lyrics from someone else?Do you have a LEAST favorite (or hated) example of a songwriter/composer copying music and/or lyrics from someone else?