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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.
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.
Making Lyrics From Other Lyrics - Fair Use & Reference - Part 1
Referencing of lyrics/text and/or music has been a respected practice in many cultures and traditions. I have written this and will write future posts to show that in our society - Western, North American, South American, U. S. (and elsewhere) - we commonly reference. Culture is built by expression which is manifested by origination, accretion, reference, imitation, reproduction and other means.In my opinion, in the examples below, copyright has NOT been infringed. These are examples of fair use.
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:
Piece of cake, copulating beetles & Paul McCartney attacks John Lennon
McCartney, perhaps in a brief effort to ameliorate some of the pain he may have caused Lennon (the guy who was lucky to have been a Beatle), might be assigning blame for the legal and financial problems that the Beatles experienced near the end of their time as Beatles (the death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein and the hazards of new management, the establishment and serious problems of future Beatles' management, the dissolution of the Beatles, etc.) to business managers and lawyers "breaching practices."
I've Had The Time Of My Life & Do I Owe It All To Sandals.com Ripping Off The Beatles?
Q U E S T I O N SDoes Sandals sound like The Beatles?Does Sandals rip off The Beatles?Does Sandals infringe The Beatles?Does Sandals sound too much like The Beatles?Is the Sandals/Beatles issue a copyright problem?Is the Sandals/Beatles issue a right of publicity problem?Is the Sandals/Beatles issue an unfair competition problem?...
Talk Amongst Yourselves, Turn Me On, Beatles One Louder, the Buttocks Bowl
How can you get one's attention? Play a Beatles recording. Play something loud and very noticeable. Maybe the intro to a Beatles song. If one wants to hear a loud, striking, very original opening of a Beatles song, one that will really hit the ear, there is one song that WILL not do it. It would be the WORST BEATLES SONG, worst only in terms of making a listener notice. What is the Beatles song LEAST likely to get one's attention?
Do The Macarena (On A Fishing Boat In The North Atlantic With An HP Printer)
While working on a project, I heard this HP Office Jet Pro commercial and looked up. What distracted me and attracted me to the commercial was the manner in which it referenced the way-too-big hit song from the mid 1990's, "Macarena." (When I just wrote, M-A-C-A-R-E-N-A, Wordpress thought perhaps I meant, "Macaroni," or "Macaroon." No, I meant M-A-C-A-R-E-N-A. It might take a few more years to convince the world of words that Macarena is Macarena, just as it took a long time to make "Beatles" not be "Beetles.""Macarena" features its hook at these eleven (11) places in Macarena:
Did Big Happens Here Do Digable Planets?
I know that many traditional jazz players, especially in the early and mid-1980's, would not likely latch on to a short phrase, repeat it many times and make this small and almost "throw away" motif into something big. This tiny melodic gesture, in the hands of an outsider (with respect to a musical tradition), could become the most important part of the melody, or sometimes the only melody that matters to someone from outside of that tradition. This "how does a foreigner view our music" idea is one I will explore later. I'll include myself in this - how and why did I get into hip hop, or Senegalese, Malagasy, Brazilian or Cuban music.All of this to get back to that famous Digable Planets song that samples some jazz.