moonpie
10/17/2011 2:20:00 PM
On Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:30:23 -0700 (PDT), iarwain
<iarwain_8@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> if you started busting on guys who pinched guitar licks from each other, you'd never stop once you started...
>
>Yeah, good point.
>This is why, from a moral standpoint, I've never felt like people
>"own" music.
>There are only so many notes. People talk about old blues musicians
>borrowing songs and parts from each other.
Heh, Led Zeppelin sure did. They were an interesting case... Page
often re-arranged the tunes and wrote his own guitar parts, or in some
cases, combined parts from different guys and then played a new part
based on the old... but they'd pinch the lyrics note for note. and
THATS where they got busted.
The Rolling Stones always gave credit to the original blues artists.
>Similarly, it seems to be okay for guitarists to use other players'
>licks.
>But when it comes to words and melody, it's taboo.
thats even the legal definition of "authorship" and copyright. The
only thing you need to file as author, is lyrics, vocal melody and
"backing". The backing is not specific and therefore its impossible to
legally claim ownership to almost any kind of instrumental passage in
a song based on lyrics.