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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Ryan Williams <ryan@headphonetreats.com> |
| Subject | Re: No need to register copyrights. |
| Date | Tue, 9 Sep 2003 13:07:46 -0400 |
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> Sometimes, snatches of more famous tunes can be culled from an artist's
> writing, but I would consider that more homage than theft.
Agreed. But again. It's not about theft. Infringement is a big grey
area. My point was that it rarely comes down to a black and white right
or wrong. Even in the seemingly black and white cases with groups like
2LiveCrew, where parody use was the defense, there was a great deal of
grey area... their was no question of their use of the song.
> Legality? Lawyers will jump on ANYTHING they think will allow them to
> trade
> up on the Mercedes or boat, and are usually at the center of anything
> creative that ends up in court. The problem with ALL laws is that they
> are
> often on the side of those that use them to profit from others.
> They're called Courts Of Law...not Courts Of Justice.
While that may sometimes be the case, it is the publishing companies
that cries foul... you don't have many lawyers listening intently to the
airwaves trying to dig up a case. And after all, it is the publishers
property. They should be allowed to protect it if they feel the
infringement is valid. And as I have pointed out, Infringement is
terribly difficult to prove. There are few cases that make it past the
law office, let alone the hearing stage. This isn't an area of law ripe
in menace suits. Playing it off with the "dirty lawyer" argument doesn't
really hold water.
A cheesy, yet good example of a valid infringement case was between Huey
Lewis and the News and Ray Parker Jr. over the theme to "Ghostbusters".
Huey Lewis had be asked to record a theme for the movie, but he refused
to be involved. So the producers went to Ray Parker, Jr. and asked him
to write a song that sounded like something Huey Lewis would do. He did
so, and in the process infringed on Huey's "I Want A New Drug". The case
was settled out of court. Heuy was quoted as saying "The offensive part
was not so much that Ray Parker Jr. had ripped this song off, it was
kind of symbolic of an industry that wants something -- they wanted our
wave, and they wanted to buy it. ... [I]t's not for sale. ... In the
end, I suppose they were right. I suppose it was for sale, because,
basically, they bought it."
So there's an example of the artist trying to protect himself against
the industry using this very law. There are countless others.
Ryan
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