The Logic Off Topic list

S. wrote:

>Not entirely. As I would interpret it, PeeWee would owe Prince
>because Prince created the solo . And  given Prince embelished
>the original with his solo, he would also have some copyrights over
>his performance of the original, even though a large part would
>go to ecnirp. (How large is probably a matter of how good one's
>negotiating team is).
>
>And if the above is 'true', it is easy to see how
>a legal rep would  find it easy to relate the PeeWee
>performance back to the Ecnirp original.

I think it's spelled "ecnirP," BTW.

Yeah, you've got to be really careful these days. Arrangements and 
solos are definitely copyrightable and any major label will certainly 
do so.

Here's an example:

A while back, I produced a new version of the tune "Santa Baby" for a 
commercial. The client (a large national concern) had secured the 
rights to the song, but *NOT* the rights to the arrangement they 
wanted to copy (Ertha Kitt, I believe). We couldn't use the very 
recognizable background male chorus part, and had to invent something 
new that was like it.

Here's another interesting gotcha:

Always watch out when you're using so-called public domain material. 
If you're not careful, you could use something that was added in a 
later arrangement, and still under copyright. For instance, I worked 
on a children's CD a few years ago, and they wanted to incorporate 
some well known PD material like "Polly Wolly Doodle" and "Turkey In 
the Straw." Those songs are obviously ancient, but over the years, 
they've had many, many sets of lyrics. Publishers would have writers 
come up with new sets of lyrics, and then they could copyright the 
songs once again. Especially in the case of these old slave songs, 
the new politically correct versions currently out would have fresh 
lyrics under copyright.

At 10:50 AM -0600 7/5/01, Zeek Duff wrote:
>Hrmpf.  Anyway, you gotta draw the line somewhere, and it's
>always the session guys that get screwed.  You can create a bass 
>part or guitar
>solo that everyone agrees, sells the tune.  But, what do you get? 
>Session fees,
>and that's it.  Ah, reality.  :(


Hey, that's the *best* case scenario. Once peer-to-peer sharing 
completely takes hold, there won't be any session fees. ;-)

Lee Blaske