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In Reply to: RE: Whether an appeal is successful often depends... posted by John Marks on March 12, 2015 at 15:28:59
I'm not as sure from a standpoint of technicalities of trial proceedings, as obviously I wasn't there. Having said that, there is no reasonable explanation from the standpoint of copyright law as it applies to music for the verdict other than misunderstanding/misapplication of the law, something also reflected in the writing of the NYT article.
Dave
Follow Ups:
I think the NY Times writer is muddling together several separate (though potentially legitimate) issues, resulting in a confused and confusing article. From a legal standpoint, as you say, you need to be able to clearly document what is original about your product to get copyright protection. And indeed, the operative issue is how the product is original, not how it is similar to earlier products. Originality is not supposed to be a particularly high barrier to clear,and I agree with you that the decision in this case seems wrong.
Obviously, the system of notation you use has to be capable of capturing what is original about your music. As I mentioned in the example I gave below, notation systems can become inadequate and obsolete. But that is a second, separate issue.
A third issue is whether the whole concept of copyright protection needs to be reconsidered in the digital age. The federal government has already answered "yes" to that question, though the current direction is controversial in some quarters.
So there are at least those three issues behind the Times article, and probably more.
"Obviously, the system of notation you use has to be capable of capturing what is original about your music. As I mentioned in the example I gave below, notation systems can become inadequate and obsolete. But that is a second, separate issue."Where notation is inadequate a recording should suffice as documentation of a composition. In a discussion elsewhere on the topic, someone metioned that in this case the recording was off limits in the trial because the Gaye family does not own the master of the recording and there are elements of the recording that are not copyrighted (the latter is true of sheet music too..). If a change is needed, to whatever extent a recording can not serve as documentation of a composition that would be the change I would make.
The link has evidence presented in the trial of the similarities argued by the Gaye estate, and it is absolutely laughably absurd. Whatever Thicke/Williams paid their defense team, they need their money back.
Dave
Edits: 03/13/15
The underlying problem is jury trials in civil matters.
The old darlings so often haven't a clue.
that some copyright law commentators are arguing for a more stringent originality standard for music. It's part of a movement since the internet came to the fore of greater copyright protection, lobbied for aggressively by the established pre-internet content owners like Disney.Could we get to the point where the Monk estate claims Charade sounds too much like 'Round Midnight? (Just kidding!)
Edits: 03/14/15 03/14/15
Just sayin'.
jm
And John Williams' Theme from Jaws sounds like the Sacrificial Dance from the Rite of Spring. And Andrew Lloyd Webber's I Don't Know How To Love Him sounds like the 2nd movement of the (public domain) Mendelssohn violin concerto. And Come Together sounds like You Can't Catch Me. But none of those was plagiarism or copyright infringement, imho.
... I'll Be Seeing You sounds like the last movement of Mahler 3..
nt
To be specific, I'm talking about a minute in to the sixth movement.
Dave
He, of the, "the law is a living crystal blah blah blah."
jm
I really don't watch anything.
JM
Here is the only good thing associated with that program.
"Better Call Saul" is a current television series on AMC which grew out of their very successful previous series, "Breaking Bad" (which itself won all kinds of awards, kudos from critics and viewers, etc.). Per Wikipedia, the debut episode of "Better Call Saul" set the record for the highest-rated scripted series premiere in basic cable history.
It deals with a scheister lawyer, Jimmy McGill, whom, despite his venality, you find yourself rooting for. At a later point in the series, he will change his name to Saul Goodman (hence, the series title). Although there are many comic episodes (as when McGill's schemes backfire), the general tone of the series is deeply serious. In fact, in terms of tone, I find it similar to the 1993 Michael Douglas film, "Falling Down" - one of my favorite films of all time.
If you or anyone else ever get(s) interested, the series will probably appear on Netflix at some point - which will allow for binge watching and catching up. The current first season of ten episodes is a little over half done right now.
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