playing safe with melody rights ?

Subject: playing safe with melody rights ?
From: GUEST,that bloke who's come back here
Date: 06 Jun 08 - 10:18 PM

you write an origional song,
and the melody just comes to you so automaticaly and so quickly
like as if its a gift from some other unworldly state of being

[god/nature/spiritworld/matrix/Oz/cuckooland/etc/take your pick]


this melody is so good because you know it just is.

so humable and so catchy in that
almost instantly recognisable kind of way.

so its bound to be a hit..

Now the point here, is that George Harrison was only one amongst many
who got fingered and shafted by the mercenary copyright bloodhounds,
when a similar such melodious gift was so luckily dumped in his lap.


soooo..

how to deal with it these days..

If you write a new melody in all good faith and honest integrity,
but you feel insecure because its so good
it must surely have been created before;

how do you go about publishing it ?


My name.. say Cheeky Harrison..

Melody rights belong to Cheeky Harrison
until some other mean spirited mercenary @#&$ proves otherwise ?


tough one.. ?


and the reason is, because i just wrote that naggingly familiar
hit potential melody.....

Subject: RE: playing safe with melody rights ?
From: M.Ted
Date: 06 Jun 08 - 10:54 PM

You can go ahead and hope for the best (which is what most folks do), you can shelve it out of fear, or you can try to figure out which song it sounds like, and change it enough so that it doesn't any more. Or you can find a melody that is out of copyright and fit your lyrics to that.

Anyway, if it is a potential hit (and I've just got to believe you when you say it is) then you owe it to the world to get it out there. Even if the court rules against you (which is actually rather rare), you'll get to keep some of the money, which is better than shoving it in a drawer and not getting anything.

Subject: RE: playing safe with melody rights ?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 03:25 AM

There was a computerised melody recognition process reported quite a a long time ago. It did not recognise pitch, not duration.

If a note is higher than the previous note, enter "U". If a note is lower than the previous note enter "D".

Allegedly the level of recognition after as few as 5 entries was remarkable.

Subject: RE: playing safe with melody rights ?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 05:21 PM

It worked better with classical themes, which don't admit of as much variation as does folk.

Subject: RE: playing safe with melody rights ?
From: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird)
Date: 07 Jun 08 - 10:58 PM

Nothing for it but to analyze your melody and try to identify all its sources, even unconsciously copied sources. If you correctly identify all your sources, and they turn out all to be public-domain sources, you're in the clear. As long, that is, as you don't fall afoul of anyone's trademarks.

You might also join the crusade for a shorter duration of copyright. If we had a shorter term, the chances would increase that any one instance of unconscious copying would not be infringing.