> Russ Knipe wrote:
> > Do you feel that the "riff" stealing that occurs in the music
> >industry is O.K.? By this I am refering to "artists" who use musical
> >fragments already released and use them for their own song.
> >
> >Russ Knipe ><00rmknipe[_at_]bsuvc.bsu.edu>
>
> I imagine that the copyright owners would take a pretty dim view of this
> kind of activity, if it could be proven.
> There are several cases, in the UK, I think (sorry I don't have cites)
> where very small amounts of music were held to be infringing.
>
> Mike Lean <lean[_at_]qut.edu.au>
Copyright owners take a dim view because they are earning off the back of the authors a lot of the time (I mean recording and publishing companies).
If you ask most musicians about this you will find that they admit to being on thin ice themselves whether or not they have any intention of 'stealing'. I have been in a music environment all my life and the fear of 'stealing' -- sounding like something else -- being deemed to copy has prevented many great and original songs from ever getting past a late night demo session.
I know that there is an enormous amount of natural integrity in real musicianship - even to the point of acknowledging the original inspiration. It used to be an honour to be 'quoted' in both classical and jazz music - or have a theme varied upon (Haydn varied people's themes regularly). My point is that obsession with ownership can put a ball and chain on creativity and make it all a 'bottom line' business....a shame.
Jackie Mackay
PHONE: +44 (0)71 490 1609 FAX +44 (0)71 490 4470
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Mon Mar 26 2007 - 00:35:14 GMT