Re: Jail for lyrics and chords

Earl P. Jones wrote: 
Phillip Mills wrote:

The discussion *had* moved into what people considered "right" or
"sensible" approaches to fair use rather than strict, current legalities.


OK, let's discuss that. I responded because your previous post seemed to suggest that anything short of an exact duplicate ought not to be protected. I fail to see anything "right" or "sensible" about an approach which, in my view, would effectively destroy copyright. It's fairly trivial to introduce minor variations which have little if any effect on the general perception/content of a work - there are security systems based on that fact, introducing systematic variations so that each "copy" is in fact unique. If that were all it took to evade copyright, then no one with half an ounce of sense would ever be held liable for infringement.

Or, to put it another way, suppose I want to steal someone's book manuscript. Should I be able to get away with it if I:
Spell the protagonist's name differently?
Print it in a different font?
Bind it down the right side of the front page instead of the left?
Bluntly, I see transcribing something in your own writing as being on exactly this level of superficiality. It's a distinction without any real difference.

As for independent works on a common theme, I have seen examples of this done (most often stories by two or more authors based on a single picture) but have yet to see any where the results had more than a passing resemblance to each other. Consequently I am utterly unconvinced that this is an appropriate paradigm for the intentional rendition of someone else's work in a different format/medium.

Earl Jones

Earl, you are talking about fairly minor changes.. IE: McConnals instead of McDonalds. There have been some trademark infringment cases where even fairly MAJOR changes, way bigger than spelilng or font, Changes large enough to insure that nobody ever got them confused,,,, LOST!

And in at least one case the author's of both items ... Were the same!

(But the copanies that published the two works, considerably different works I might add, but both of which did the same thing, were different) (The claim was "the look and feel was the same)

This led to a joke article that had, among other things, Anderson Windows sueing windows over pull down windows and what's her name (Author, book "The Happy Hooker" sueing the phrase "look and feel" which, of course, is the trademark of HER profession.

That said, If you get the feeling that I disagree with the courts on those "look and feel" cases.... You have properly read me.

Still.. Compaired to some of the musical re-arrangments I've seen, those look and feel cases differences, look like minor changes

(I NEED TO RESTATE HERE THAT the windows and hooker issues above were indeed a joke and never filed... However Windows was indeed sued, by Apple and/or Xerox, (who happens to hold the copyright on graphic user interfacing) and, if memory serves, money talked.)

--
John in Detroit E-Dress is smoked, try: w a 8 y x m at a r r l dot n e t
.

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