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

On 3/2/99, Terry Carroll <carroll[_at_]tjc.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, Vance R. Koven <vrkoven[_at_]world.std.com> wrote:
> >
> > I guess Igor Stravinsky thought the same thing, but he still had to
> > pay for the right to use the melody in one of his own pieces.
>
> 1. In what year?
>
> 2. Did the copyright owner prevail in court, or did the composer
> merely backdown to avoid litigation?

I'm going to have to do some research to get the particulars, but my recollection so far is that the piece dates from the 1940s or 1950s (called, I believe, "Birthday Ode" and in which he uses the tune with the melody notes displaced by octaves), and that there was a complaint filed but no case tried to a decision.

Stravinsky was particularly sensitive to copyright issues, having strategically revised many of his early pieces just as the copyrights in the US were about to expire. He would have hated to be hoist on his own petard. He was a sharp dealer but had at least that much honor in business. I believe also that his lawyers advised him he would lose.

• Vance R. Koven * phone: 617-482-3852 *
• attorney at law * fax: 617-482-4972 *
• 20 Park Plaza Ste. 633 * net: vrkoven[_at_]world.std.com *
• Boston, MA 02116 * *

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