Replaying melodies?

RodneyRuger

RodneyRuger

New member
Hey guys im not the best in literature but ill try and make this question as understandable as i can.

ok say i heard an old hit song on the radio and i like a certain part of a melody and it was played with a Piano...now if i played the same melody in a beat but used a synth or saxaphone could i still get sued? my side questions to this is

1. is there a certain number of notes before its open game? like say a melody went C, E, G, note all the the beat every bar and it was a #1 smash in the 80s does this mean doing that is off limits to any other artist ever?

1a. how many notes does it take before u can call it your own?
1b. what if i transpose it down to B D#, F#,?
1c. what if i change it to a bass line by lowering the octave?


2. what if it was a complex melody like E,F#,G#,B,C#,D#,C#,D#,A from journey's "don't stop believing"?

2a. what if i changed a note or two?
2b. what if i played some and then stop?

thanks to any one who took the time to read and put their 2 cents in advance. i know actually taking a sample from the original is a no brainer but as I'm becoming more intermediate with my piano playing I'm finding myself able to play recognizable melodies just by ear and would like to put some into my beats
 
Last edited:
the number of notes doesnt matter

its wether or not you can tell/it can be proved that you took the idea from them
 
i don't really remember the specifics, but what you might want to research, is ice ice baby, by vanilla ice. i think it was very similar to a david bowie song, under pressure (again, i don't really remember) and he got sued. not sure of the outcome, i do know that they were very similar and they changed like 1 note. i think he won, but i could be wrong, but its worth looking into if you have questions about this sorta thing. again, i don't remember any specifics, but i do remember it being interesting when i heard about it. might shed some light.
LevLove
 
1, 1a) The test for whether a new work infringes on an existing work is called "substantial similarity." It's a quantitative and qualitative test - there are no hard and fast rules, like you can copy x amount of notes. Plus, the test used by courts to determine substantial similarity differ between circuits. Outside the US, other countries use similar approaches - you can see the analysis Australia uses in the Men at Work case, for example.

1b, 1c) Minor alterations like that save you from a finding of infringement. The reason courts use substantial similarity is because if you could only find infringement in exact replicas, anyone could easily change a few notes or a few words and get away with using someone else's work.

2) You have to look at not only how much you copied, but what you copied. Chord progressions typically aren't protectable, but again, there's no bright line rule.
 
LevLover said:
i don't really remember the specifics, but what you might want to research, is ice ice baby, by vanilla ice. i think it was very similar to a david bowie song, under pressure (again, i don't really remember) and he got sued. not sure of the outcome, i do know that they were very similar and they changed like 1 note. i think he won, but i could be wrong, but its worth looking into if you have questions about this sorta thing. again, i don't remember any specifics, but i do remember it being interesting when i heard about it. might shed some light.
LevLove
Click to expand...

That was a "sampling" issue... Not a "replaying the melody" issue.


Quite different.
 
Oh ok I had a similar question in my thread that never got answered lol.

I also used the same melody or patterns, but used different synths instead of the ones that were on the original. And I changed the drums to the beat. And slowed it down. It's extremely identical, so am I good? Or am I going to be sued if the creator(s) find out?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top