Re: Acknowledging samples

Into the swamp with this one!

For some music, what seems to be music is really just a beat and such a pedestrian tune that the copyright in it is very, very thin. For example, the talking blues genre cannot be tied up by copyrighting a blues song. And so it is for the blues chord progression in general. And for the basic rock cord progression, and so on. Nor can a shuffle rhythm, swing, rumba, cha-cha-cha, rap, hip-hop, etc. Nor disco.

But, at some point the combination becomes copyrightable, creative, original expression.

But that point is hard to define, especially for ordinary, pedestrian renditions of disco or rap or country or rock.

So, your choir's song could be just a sound alike because at some level so much of that type sounds alike (like all manilow sounds like manilow or fogarty sounds like fogarty), but it might still be original and not infringing as either a copy or derivative work.

"Inspired by" is generally not infringing unless it is really a copy or is less inspired by than derived from.

Steve

On 9/14/06, Varvel, Virgil <vvarvel[_at_]uillinois.edu> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
>
>
> Quick question. Our choir was practicing a song last night. As I was
> listening to it, I realized that the primary beat of the song was taken from
> an old disco tune of all places. On the music, there was no attribution to
> where this melody came from, only to the lyrics and the arrangement. My
> question is whether you can take from another artist in this way without
> attribution? First, is this alright within copyright law? It seemed to be
> similar to plagiarism to me as well, since there is no credit given.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Virgil E. Varvel Jr.
>
> Illinois Online Network
>
> University Outreach and Public Service
>
> University of Illinois
>
> Vvarvel[_at_]uillinois.edu
>
>

-- 
Prof. Steven Jamar
Howard University School of Law