Re: Who owns signature guitar licks?

You asked, "What would stop Young from playing the same riff on someone else's record?"

Common sense, probably. Why would someone want a signature lick from a well-known song on their record? The only reasons would be for purposes of parody, musical commentary or to re-create a sample that's otherwise unobtainable because of a sound recording copyright (Drift Away came out in 1973; sound recording copyrights kicked in 1972).

If your question is whether the riff (as a separate composition) is protected by copyright and whether the guitarist owns it -- I doubt if anyone but a judge or jury can give you the answer. Courts have gone all over the place on whether short sections of music are protectible from Learned Hand's decision in Fisher v. Dillingham to the recent Beastie Boys case. (For a discussion about whether the composer of the organ riff on Procol Harum's 'Whiter Shade of Pale' deserves some credit, see http://www.procolharum.com/awsopcomp.htm.)

Assuming it is protectible, what proprietary rights does the guitar player have? That's equally tricky. He's a co-author of the sound recording copyright but, as you point out, by this point it's likely to be presumed he granted a license for use of performance of the riff in the sound recording.
It's possible, he was a co-author of a derivative version of the original song. That depends if his contribution rises to co-authorship and whether the parties intended to co-author a derivative version? One factor that may affect things is whether the sheet music includes the riff? I'm not sure how much that's worth but it demonstrates that the publisher considered it as essential element of the composition.

What could anyone do about the guitarist's new performance of the riff? Probably not much. It's possible that Dobie Gray could argue that the signature riff -- even though not composed by Gray -- is associated with him. (Think --- the Tonight Show Theme and Johnny Carson). But that's not a strong argument and it requires demonstrating consumer associations and other unfair competition/trademark styled arguments that (except for vengeful litigants) would unlikely be worth the time or effort.

Rich Stim
Nolo.com

"Since 1988, only 16 classical albums sold over a million copies in the United States; five of them were put out by Victoria's Secret" -- Peter Spellman  

>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 whLat 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.
Received on Thu Aug 28 2003 - 22:09:32 GMT