quote:

Originally posted by zenperson I'm only telling you the safe route to go about things. ALL of this I learned from an attorney. I'm not making this stuff up and i'm not just reasoning it out, as I suspect some of you might be.

Not surprising that a lawyer would tell you to do things the laborious and expensive way - and generally a way in which you'd need legal counsel to do it properly.

I'm obviously not saying that I know more than a trademark attorney, but I think copyright cases like that are sort of like speeding ticket cases, you can do everything the prescribed legal way if you want but it isn't necessary and most of the time the courts won't care. A judge can easily decide that a copyrighted work isn't novel, just like he can with a patent, and attempting to copyright a short melody is almost guaranteed to produce that outcome if someone "steals" it.

Submitting your melody in a "tangible form" means publishing it. It's then the published work that's copyrighted (not copywritten, that's not a word), not the notes themselves.

___________________
My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here

perfect thread- will be amazing for the report im writing about sampling, intellectual propery etc.



Some of your posts may be used in my report? Everyone ok with that?

___________________
Fortuna Favet Fortibus.

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut Not surprising that a lawyer would tell you to do things the laborious and expensive way - and generally a way in which you'd need legal counsel to do it properly. I'm obviously not saying that I know more than a trademark attorney, but I think copyright cases like that are sort of like speeding ticket cases, you can do everything the prescribed legal way if you want but it isn't necessary and most of the time the courts won't care. A judge can easily decide that a copyrighted work isn't novel, just like he can with a patent, and attempting to copyright a short melody is almost guaranteed to produce that outcome if someone "steals" it. Submitting your melody in a "tangible form" means publishing it. It's then the published work that's copyrighted (not copywritten, that's not a word), not the notes themselves.

Sorry dude, but you're wrong. And I'm not going to go on with this argument forever and ever... A work need not be published to be COPYRIGHTED ..... i can record my sound recording, submit it to the patent office and bam, it's now my my posession. As for your your judges being reasonable, dude, it has nothing to do with what you think is reasonable or not reasonble... it has to do with law.

So, stop telling us what you think the judge would do, and go with what you know is fact. I took the time to get educated so that I would know what was right and what was wrong, not so I could entertain my own thoughts as to what I think might happen when I copyright my melodies. You're right.. the notes are not copyrighted.. but, the sequence is... If you copy my sequences, and we play them back, and they sound the same, and I had my sequence copyrighted, then yes, you will lose the law suit.

So, I've said all I'm going to say... The original author of this thread obviously isn't participating anymore, so it is what it is.

And yea Allied, go ahead and use it... These are all facts, not my personal opinions.

quote:

Originally posted by zenperson A work need not be published to be COPYRIGHTED ..... i can record my sound recording, submit it to the patent office and bam, it's now my my posession.

I think you're misunderstanding the term "published" to mean something like "commercially released". Published simply means some sort of tangible property - sheet music, a recording, etc. And that property specifically is what becomes copyright - you submit a recording, the recording is copyrighted, not the melodies you used in it.

quote:

As for your your judges being reasonable, dude, it has nothing to do with what you think is reasonable or not reasonble... it has to do with law.

Lots of patents get through the patent office that end up being struck down in court. Same thing happens with copyright and trademarks. I'm not telling you what I think is reasonable, I'm telling you what actually happens in court and you need only look at some case history to verify that.

I respect that you took the time to get educated and I never said that you were wrong about the legal technicalities, just that you seem to be misinterpreting the part about what is actually protected. You submit a published work (and there is a published work, that's what you're submitting by definition), then the published work is copyrighted. Not its component parts, i.e. the melody.

It just won't work in court. Any melody you tried to "copyright" is practically guaranteed to have been used in some prior work, either in full or in a form similar enough to count it as not novel and have the case thrown out of court. There's a world of difference between the wholesale digital or analog copying of a recorded work and the recreation of said work using some of its melodies or progressions (which happens hundreds of times every day). It's bizarre that anyone wouldn't see or acknowledge the clear difference.

I've taken the time to get educated on this too; we obviously just got educated from different sources.

___________________
My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here

I'd have to agree with diginut here

___________________

Storyteller Website | Storyteller @ Facebook | Storyteller @ Beatport | Storyteller @ Soundcloud | Stephen J. Kroos - Europa (Storyteller Remix)
Anthony Mea - Get It On (Storyteller Remix)

quote:

If less is more think about how much more more would be. -Frasier