Lyr Req: Anything on Copyrights?

01 Jun 00 - 10:18 AM (#236819)
Subject: Anything on Copyrights?
From: GUEST,Mrr

Hi, I was looking at the Woody Guthrie thread and was mightily amused by his copyright statement, being:
"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do." W.G.

In a song called (I think) either Otto Zilch or From The Indies To The Andies in his Undies, one verse goes:
(something about his) mission, stopping only now and then to do some fishin', and he went without a copyright permission, 'twas a very very daring thing to do. Otherwise a great children's song, but these 2 led me to ask - any other good lyrics with Copyright (with or without Permission)?

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01 Jun 00 - 01:06 PM (#236910)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anything on Copyrights?
From: SeanM

It's not a song, but I've always loved the Steve Jackson Games edition of the Principia Discordia... "Copywrite K, All rights Reversed"... Later, he goes on in his intro to encourage everyone to take the book, revise, republish, reissue or whatever the main body of the book... As he put it, more or less, "I did it 'cause I wanted to, and think that you should to".

m

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01 Jun 00 - 05:53 PM (#237053)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anything on Copyrights?
From: Jacob B

I didn't want to mention this, but no one else has. I avoided posting it because it makes an accusation. I'm sure that there are lots of people who know something about the extent that the accusation is true, but I'm not one of them.

At any rate, there is a song verse which is supposedly by Leadbelly, although it may be apochryphal. It goes:

If anybody should ask you who wrote this song
Tell them Huddie Ledbetter's been here and gone
If anybody should ask you who copyrighted this song
Tell them it was John Lomax and his goddam son

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19 Jun 00 - 09:54 AM (#244395)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anything on Copyrights?
From: GUEST,T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird)

Here are some:

The Ballad of Dennis Karjala

The Free Software Song

D.M.C.A.

And "The Mudcat Came Back", which you can find by clicking here and then clicking on the song title.

T.

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26 Jun 00 - 07:37 PM (#247379)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anything on Copyrights?
From: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird)

John Forster's "Fusion", a satirical jab at Paul Simon, includes the following words, sung to a variant of the isometric version of the melody Herzlich tut mich verlangen ("O sacred head sore wounded")--

This pretty tune was written by Hans Leo Hassler
in fifteen ninety-nine.
I wrote some words and changed about three notes--
now ASCAP says it's mine.

The complete lyric can be found at http://www.icu.com/johnforster/FUSION.html

T.

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