Hello,
It was this way. It used to be that the bassline and drum pattern were not
considered part of the song. The melody and lyrics were the only thing
recognized under the law. I have a side thread going with Phred on this, so
I will sum them both up together. There was a group whose name escapes me
that completely stole the drum patterns and bassline from Pump Up The Volume
by M/A/R/R/S and 4AD took them to court. The arguement in court was whether
or not the bassline constituted a melody. If it did, then 4AD could take
legal recourse, and if not, then they were out of luck.
Again with Ice Ice Baby, that track was pretty late in the game for legal
challenges like that. Pump Up The Volume was out in 87, and Ice Ice Baby was
out in 89-90 right?
Take care,
mt
From: Eric Scuccimarra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Mike Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [email protected]
Subject: Re: [313] FWD: Letter from Daniel Bell
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 09:06:26 -0400
I remember seeing an interview with (I think) Bootsy Collins, who remarked
that (at least it used to be) you couldn't sue someone over a drum pattern
or a bass line. Melodies and lyrics only. So if there's not much more to a
track than beats and bass, you put it out at your own risk. "That's not a
song". That is, outside of electronic music, the studio is still
considered window dressing. I just doubt there's much precedent in the law
for what would be considered engineering techniques, like the EQing of a
vocal sample.
Regarding the bass line issue - what about "Ice Ice Baby" and "Under
Pressure?"
That was a law suit over a bassline and a successful one if I remember
correctly. The former track shared nothing in common with the latter except
for an obviously ripped off bassline but there was still a lawsuit over it.
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