Originally Posted by: Cryptic ExcretionsThat raises question. Is it still copyright violation if you take a song and completely bastardize the tuning? It'll sound different, different notes, different everything. It'll just be the same frets. How far would one get with that?
There's a certain amount of 'fair usage' allowed and you'll hear 'close' copies of tunes all the time, especially in things like commercials or comedy movies.
There's also a bit of a grey area where it comes to parodies.
There's too many factors involved to say for sure without it actually going to court. It depends on the owner of the copyright and whether they want to spend a couple of years in litigation paying for lawyers. It depends on who violated the copyright and whether it's considered a parody and how much of it is copied. It also depends on whether the person violating the copyright actually makes any money off it..do they just owe licensing fees for use of the song or royalties. It depends on who actually owns the original song.. ie, publisher 50%, Lyrics 25%, melody 25%. That means that several people would have to be involved in the lawsuit...all very expensive.
In the example of the one I just posted, even though it evokes the essence of the original it uses all new chords. It's a definite parody. I'm not making any money off it or falsely trying to claim the tune as my own. It's an advertisement for the original tune rather than a rip off.
Basically, if the publisher or original author objected to it, their first step would be to reach me and request it's removal, which I'd do at once. Not just because of the legal issues but because it's the right thing to do.
Even if one person objected to it, I'd remove it no problem.
If I wanted to be a total dick though, and leave it up there I could take the risk of fighting it in court and it'd be up to a judge to decide what the damages are.
Considering that no money is involved and there aren't really any damages, the most that would probably happen if I was found guilty of copyright infringement would be an order to pay the royalties for use of the tune.
Either that or it'd settle out of court for a small sum of money.
The most likely thing to happen is absolutely nothing. The original author isn't going to want to spend the next 2 years of their life paying lawyers and putting a case together, taking time to go to court and fighting the case against a non U.S. citizen.. all for a small bit of money. The most important thing to the original author should be that they don't want their tune copied and as long as it's removed at their request..no problem. And if anybody wants it removed, click.. it's gone.
