Stealing Music … Where Do We Draw the Line?

rbrito2 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:45:38 +0000

We all know how music infringement (like “pirating” music) has been an issue for a long time. I don’t understand where the point of crossing the line is, though. The ex-Beatle George Harrison was guilty of copying phrases from the Chiffons’ song “He’s So Fine” in his song “My Sweet Lord,” and this happened in 1971. Where is this line between legally copying certain notes from another song and illegally copying them? How many notes does it take, too? I’m sure every song has similar notes or phrases to at least one other song out there. I mean, there are seriously a ton of songs out there, so does an artist have to listen to every song and make sure they aren’t committing music infringement? I guess if an artist thinks his or her melody is similar to another artist’s, then he or she should get permission from the copyright owner. In George Harrison’s case though, he said he “unconsciously” copied the notes.

I recently listened to “He’s So Fine” and “My Sweet Lord” to compare the two. I can hear the same beat of about five notes repeated numerous times in both songs, but it is faster in “He’s So Fine” and both are in different keys. There could be a note added in “He’s So Fine” too, but it’s hard to tell. To be honest, I don’t think I would have noticed the similarity between the two if I already didn’t know about the lawsuit. A lot of songs have the same beat, so why not have lawsuits for them?

Downloading music has been a more recent form of copyright infringement. I will admit that in the past I have been known to download music, but I didn’t do it too often. It just seemed convenient if I wanted to find a certain song and not buy the entire CD. If I didn’t like every song on a CD, then I’d just download the songs I liked. CD sales have plummeted over the past years, which isn’t exactly a good thing for CD stores. Where should people draw the line on downloading music? Billions of people download music illegally, and it would be impossible to arrest every single person. I know if there’s any easy way to find something free, people will definitely go the free route. I’ve just been thinking more lately that the artists must dislike this approach since it wouldn’t give them any credit for their songs. When people buy a certain CD or a song from iTunes, the artist gets some credit for their talent. It’s interesting how few CD’s I’ve purchased in the past few years compared to my younger days. I can’t even remember the last time I stepped into a CD store.

I think music sales are just going to plummet even more as time moves on, too. They already have declined because of the illegal ways of finding music. It is even happening with DVDs, too. I know a friend who just rents DVDs and burns them. It all seemed to start with stealing a few notes, but now has turned into stealing entire CDs and DVDs.

So, for the moral of my rant: music copyright infringement will always exist and it will always be hard to draw a line in stopping it.

Rockstar George Harrison Accused of Copying Music Years Ago, Music Infringement Still an Issue

rbrito2 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:43:11 +0000

There are many issues with copyright infringement, and copying music has been climbing the charts.

Stealing music and copying parts of a song have been problems among artists and the general public for decades. One famous example involves ex-Beatle George Harrison and the Chiffons. He was found guilty for “unconsciously” copying the Chiffons’ song “He’s So Fine” in his song “My Sweet Lord.” Harrison’s hit was made in 1971 and the songs were said to be very similar in composition. “He’s So Fine” contained a five note phrase and a three note phrase that were both similar to phrases in Harrison’s song “My Sweet Lord.” It was a lawsuit that expanded over several years, up until the 90’s. An artist may be guilty of music infringement even if only parts of a song or a few notes are copied.

According to an article on copyright infringement in a series of articles on legal issues, a copyright is violated when a person copies, distributes, performs or displays all or part of a work that is copyrighted without the permission of the owner of the work. There are other ways to violate copyrighted work than having an artist steal from another artist. A person could sell “pirate” or bootleg recordings of an artist’s musical work, which would be music infringement, too.

As technology has advanced, so have the ways of violating music copyright laws. Music infringement has become easier for the general public to violate due to programs on the computer or the internet. Certain Web sites include free MP3s online, which take away from the sales of the artist’s work. Programs including Napster and Limewire have had issues in the past with people downloading many songs and making money off of copyrighted music. Congress passed a law in 1992 addressing these issues. It is called the Audio Home Recording Act, which allows people to make home recordings of music that has been prerecorded, as long as the people do not record for commercial use.

As recently as 2006, Universal Music Group filed a lawsuit against the MySpace Web site for copyright infringement. The lawsuit says that “[n]o intellectual property is safe in the MySpace world of infringement — not Plaintiffs’ videos, not Plaintiff’s songs, not even songs from [an] unreleased album…” Universal stated that MySpace encouraged copyright violation, and that the company became “one of the most prominent and valuable websites on the Internet through rampant copyright infringement.”

Programs such as iTunes allow consumers to purchase each song for $0.99 in the iTunes store. There are thousands of songs available in the store. This makes sure that people do not violate any copyright laws since they are actually purchasing the songs.

Another issue involving music infringement or even buying songs online is that music sales have declined. According to an article on music sales, compact-disc sales in the first three months of the year 2007 have dropped 20% from 2006. Over 800 music stores closed for good in 2006. iTunes has even become the top music retailer in the United States.

It all started with lawsuits like George Harrison’s and grew into something bigger as technology advanced.

Rachel Brito's Weblog

Stealing Music … Where Do We Draw the Line?

Rockstar George Harrison Accused of Copying Music Years Ago, Music Infringement Still an Issue