[Dixielandjazz] Re: Was Copyright, now; We all sound the same to them!

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/6/04 6:52:45 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu writes:

> Interesting idea, what?  Do ASCAP/BMI etc. employ actual 
> musician-types, who can read chords, understand melodies and their 
> variations, etc.?
> 

Hell no they hire any stooge they can get to try and enforce what they tell 
him is correct and tell him not to worry about anything else because they have 
the best lawyers in the Entertainment Industry to make it work for them and 
back him up.

Unfortunately they are mostly correct.  Money talks.


     HOW does one tell, in point of fact, that one tune is 
sufficiently similar to another to invoke a copyright-infringement? 

It's pretty hard to do since most tunes have already been borrowed stolen or 
just out right copied from so many others so many times that ASCAP and BMI can 
virtually play any song they want that they legally hold the rights to and 
make a case if the tune is any where near what they have, which many of the are.

How many original sounding Blues tunes have you heard in the last fifty years 
and or Jazz tunes that have not been borrowed or lifted from other tunes, 
many of the original Jazz tunes also got lifted from the melody lines of 
Classical music.

Music ain't nothing but a bunch of notes, and we just keep rearranging the 
same notes and chords over and over again, therefore we are bound to repeat 
ourselves once in a while and do the same thing some guy heard in his head fifty 
years ago.  We play em slower and we speed em up, we change the rhythm from 
Waltz to Latin to tango to Rock to whatever but they are still the same damned 
notes.

Therefore every note that has ever been written or arranged has now become 
licensed by ASCAP or BMI or so they have convinced the Legal system.

What are the precise technical similarities in both chord and 
melodic configurations that determine that one tune is a knockoff of 
another?

In a court room which has to deal with more serious crimes every day like 
(Rape and Murder) than potential copyright infringement that nobody can 
successfully argue anyway these kind of cases simply have very low priority and nobody 
int he legal system really gives a crap anyway, so the lawyers with the most 
clout and money behind them always prevail.  Usually on the behalf of RIAA, 
ASCAP AND BMI so the courts just become a wonderful PR system for them that 
usually gets some great National Press coverage to scare the Crap out of a lot of 
others that don't really know anything about the system.

Not unlike the IRS by the way Remember the slogan about "a Good Defense is a 
Good Offense," well, these guys have perfected it.

What are the penalties if a judgment is levied against you? 
Depends upon who you are and how much you have that they can find and or 
attach.   

If the guy is a good crook he is also smart enough to make certain that he is 
judgment Proof.

Remember you can't get Blood from a turnip?

Usually nothing of a fine that is ever paid because the defendant files 
bankruptcy and goes out of business under that name  even if he opens up again 
around the corner again under a different name a week later.

Hell even the worst cases like this that are prosecuted and won only result 
in the defendant paying a small % of what he stole in the first place, usually 
about enough to pay the legal  costs on both sides of the case and support the 
court system, so the only winners are the laywyers and the judges who get 
paid no matter who wins and usually send a great portion of the bill to the 
unknowing taxpayers anyway.

Not enough to stop it by any means.


Enforceable?   Usually not

 Internationally?  Not in a million years.
     Lots of questions....


Cheers,

Tom Wiggins

Been there and still have the canceled checks for the lawyers.  :))

Ain't worth the trouble unless you have a thing about supporting lawyers, If 
it happens in Chicago you can just have em eliminated for $200.00 which is a 
lot more efficient and cheaper than going to court.

I mean, i have a Ph.D. in music theory, and they didn't teach us how 
to do that.   How do judges do it? 

They Don't.

 Are judges musicians?  

 Usually not unless they are moonlighting in a Dixieland Band because they 
don't make enough money in the Judging business. :)

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins