Who owns signature guitar licks?

Hypo: Dobie Gray records "Drift Away", which was written by Mentor R. Williams. Assume for the sake of discussion (I have no idea what the truth is) that Gray never signed an assignment document for the master recording. The signature guitar lick in the recording was created (written) by Reggie Young. Assume that there was no writing between Gray and Young and that Young was not an employee for copyright purposes. Who, for copyright purposes, owns the copyright in the lick? Not the he would want to, but what would stop Young from playing the same riff on someone else's recording?

My analysis, under this fact pattern, is that Reggie Young owns the copyright to his creation, and that Dobie Gray has an unlimited license to use the work, since Reggie was hired as a session musician.

Mike Phillips Received on Thu Aug 28 2003 - 19:00:43 GMT