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PyrrhoTheSkeptic t1_jdstrs5 wrote

I think if I were writing music, I would willfully "steal" from composers who are in the public domain from being old, like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc., so that no one could claim a copyright violation, since no one can copyright those works. I would, of course, give them credit in the song, say it was composed by Bach and me, or Mozart, Beethoven, and me, or whatever.

And I would keep track of what bits I took from which pieces of music, so I could prove it in court that it originated in something that cannot be under copyright, in case someone else is claiming a copyright on a similar piece of music.

It must be very annoying to write a song and find out there is something that is similar that someone else wrote, so that one can get sued over it.

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Roman_____Holiday t1_jdsweuh wrote

The difference between inspired by and ripping off is thinner than anyone likes to admit. Almost all music written is derivative, truly original music is honored and admired specifically because it defies that standard. It is horrible that artists that create original work are set upon by over-zealous content owners and their lawyers but it is worth mentioning that digital music and the widely available technology for sampling has made "legit" infringement super easy and so likely super common.

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gwaydms t1_jdtqdsu wrote

John Lennon said as much when talking about some of ELO's songs (particularly Mister Kingdom, which borrows a few bars from Across the Universe). He grinned and said something like "Let's not talk about all the stuff I've nicked."

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pohatu771 t1_jdtqzhl wrote

He had very famously been sued (and lost) over Come Together. Part of the settlement was recording some Chuck Berry songs, which ultimately became the Rock and Roll album.

(I’m not sure how he was the one in court when Come Together, like everything else, was a Lennon-McCartney credit.)

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pineappleshnapps t1_jdun34o wrote

They credited both, even when one wrote the song from what I remember. Maybe he knew more about how it was written.

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Serious_Guy_ t1_jduvbs0 wrote

Have you heard the story about Paul McCartney not recording Yesterday for months because the whole song came to him at once, so he thought he had subconsciously heard it somewhere, and spent months trying to find it?

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CombImpressive3416 t1_jdth126 wrote

Wouldn't you need to record your own version of the music though? Like the original sheet music might be public domain but that doesn't mean the recorded version released by the orchestra is.

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pohatu771 t1_jdtr78w wrote

Writing music and incorporating a piece of someone else’s composition doesn’t mean you’re using a recording at all.

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pineappleshnapps t1_jdvxjw0 wrote

Actually, sort of. If you record a version of a public domain song, you don’t own the song, but you own the master for the recording, and you’ll get paid for it.

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