Re: Quoting Song Lyrics in Fiction (Australian Law)?

On 2/26/99, Terry Carroll <carroll[_at_]tjc.com> wrote:
>
> I've heard similar anecdotes regarding "Happy Birthday to You,"
> whose melody (as distinguished from the lyrics or the combination of
> melody+lyrics) I contend is in the public domain. The melody is the
> same melody as the very clearly public domain "Good Morning to You."
> My understanding is that the HBTY copyright owners contend that the
> simple change of dividing the note corresponding to the syllable
> "good" into two notes corresponding to the syllables in "happy" is
> sufficient transformation to claim a copyright to the "new" melody.

I encountered a situation in which a songwriter claimed that a new (and platinum-selling) song infringed on the writer's pre-existing work. After listening to both, it was clear that the musical note sequence of the two were nearly identical (the tempo and musical genre were quite similar as well). However, a musicologist opined that although the pitch sequence similarity was undeniable, the metric stress differences between the two songs was sufficient to warrant copyright protection for both.

Derric Oliver
<doliver[_at_]jazz.fantasyjazz.com> Received on Mon Mar 01 1999 - 16:22:40 GMT