Re: Who owns signature guitar licks?

Interesting question from Mr. Phillips. I suggest that no single person owns the guitar lick in the proposed hypo. The lick was not singularly published by itself. One cannot purchase sheet music of this lick. As with all other players on the recording, I believe their contributions are works for hire. The effort is a collaboration. I suspect the guitarist decided upon the lick he contributed based, in part, upon what was being played by the bassist and drummer. His performance is partly a "reaction" to all the other components. Not similar to scored music (though there may be a "lead chart" involved). Now the entire recording can be a "sound recording" copyright totally seperate from the song. There is currently discussion amongst professional recording engineer and producer organizations about seeking seperate copyrights for their efforts. The concern coming from new "surround sound" technology. If a person takes the multi-track master tapes he or she can make a new 5.1 mix. If the multi-track master is not available (whick is often the case) there is a method for simulating a new 5.1 (surround sound) mix from the original two-track mixed down master (whick was a different producer/engineer's final effort). There are currently more questions than answers. And, unless the producer or engineer has very special clout in the industry their work will be likely owned by the record label and not themselves. I'd love to see other people's read on this and associated subjects.

Phil Leonard
Montclair Studios

• Original Message ----- From: Mike Phillips To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 11:00 AM Subject: [CNI-(C)] 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 - 22:09:32 GMT