copyright infringement?

jporzelius

Blues Junior
So, there has been some talk on here about song writing and copyright infringement. I have been writing some songs with my band. The other day one of the band members remarked that there was a similarity between our newest song and an old hit. We began to discuss copyright lawsuits.

We soon realized that, (with the low pay we get from local bars), after gear, transportation, and our bar tab, it typically costs us a chunk of money every time we play our new songs. So, if we get sued for copyright infringement, we figure the original artist is going to have to chip in to pay for the money we are losing playing our version of their song.

Seems like bullet-proof logic to me. I may have been drinking a bit during practice though. :Beer:

jim
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
So, there has been some talk on here about song writing and copyright infringement. I have been writing some songs with my band. The other day one of the band members remarked that there was a similarity between our newest song and an old hit. We began to discuss copyright lawsuits.

We soon realized that, (with the low pay we get from local bars), after gear, transportation, and our bar tab, it typically costs us a chunk of money every time we play our new songs. So, if we get sued for copyright infringement, we figure the original artist is going to have to chip in to pay for the money we are losing playing our version of their song.

Seems like bullet-proof logic to me. I may have been drinking a bit during practice though. :Beer:

jim

They will only come after you if you put it on an album & try to sell it, so just leave that one off the EP.
 

JohnHurley

Rock and Roll
For blues songs it seems like almost everything is based on or similar to stuff other band(s) have done. Lyrics heavily borrowed and lifted also right?

Even rock much the same seems like. I dunno who makes much money these days from new material none of my friends ha ha.
 

BigMike

Blues Oldie
The trend seems to be you only get in trouble with copyright if you get rich and famous with it. I doubt anyone would have bothered with George Harrison's My Sweet Lord if he was just a pub singer. A travesty of justice by the way IMHO.
 
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BraylonJennings

It's all blues
I read where in the early days, John Mayall encouraged Peter Green to write his first song. He said just to take an old blues song and put your own lyrics to it. Green copied an old Freddy King song for his first to some success. The song? Black Magic Woman.
 

Rad

Blues Newbie
The trend seems to be you only get in trouble with copyright if you get rich and famous with it. I doubt anyone would have bothered with George Harrison's My Sweet Lord if he was just a pub singer. A travesty of justice by the way IMHO.


Well, most of the time the artist does not come after you, it is the heirs of the deceased artist looking for a payday that sue.

Way back when every artist took from every other artist and neither party cared. Heck, there are only 7 notes plus a few accidentals, everything sounds like something else.
 

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
I was working on something the other day, and a buddy said some kinda sounds familiar, we figured out it was in the ballpark of one of Sammy Hagars more obscure songs, hadn't listened to it since the 80's, and it was only a section of it

to get something completely original anymore, not sure you can
 

BigMike

Blues Oldie
Something I give a lot of thought to with writing my own stuff etc. This is my opinion and not legal advice ;).
Thing is, I know my stuff will never sell millions and played on MTV etc. So I doubt anyone who has written something similar would ever hear it and I would be pretty small fry to be asked for some of the royalties! 10% of $20, not worth the lawyers fee. I think I said the last time I posted a song on here, all of the licks are borrowed(or is that stolen) from many sources including this one. If you think about it, nearly every Blues song ever written has something from somewhere else in it, whether its the chord sequence, guitar riff, bass line or even lyrics. Stick 7 notes together long enough and you are bound to come up with a popular song from the past at some point.
I think where people start to get into trouble is when they do a 100% cover of an existing song and try to make money from it without paying the writer their dues.
So I wouldn't worry about it, we are all influenced by other artistes so its no surprise if something we come up with sounds similar to theirs. God knows, I wish mine were anywhere near theirs. (n)
 

BraylonJennings

It's all blues
The funniest extreme of infringement was when John Fogerty was sued for plagiarizing himself. The company that owned the publishing for the old CCR tunes sued him after his first solo album saying he was copying "their" material. I think Fogerty won, but he didn't play any Creedence songs for a long, long time.
 

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
The funniest extreme of infringement was when John Fogerty was sued for plagiarizing himself. The company that owned the publishing for the old CCR tunes sued him after his first solo album saying he was copying "their" material. I think Fogerty won, but he didn't play any Creedence songs for a long, long time.
he won on the grounds that he showed the judge that his style is his style of writing and playing, that leaving a band doesnt change that
 

david moon

Attempting the Blues
You gotta admit, My Sweet Lord was a ripoff of He's So Fine. Even if it was a conscious allusion, he should have credited the writers
 
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