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03-12-2015, 12:30 AM,
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john
Posting Freak
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Posts: 7,107
Threads: 130
Joined: Jul 2011
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RE: Songwriter Equity Act
Quote:'Blurred Lines' verdict strikes fear into songwriters
AFP By Shaun Tandon
6 hours ago
New York (AFP) - A ruling that pop stars Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams stole from Marvin Gaye threatens to create -- in the words of their smash hit -- even more blurred lines for songwriters who could increasingly be hauled to court over their artistic inspirations....
"It's just a huge nail in the coffin for an already six-foot-under music industry. Now none of us have any idea what's going to win a lawsuit," said songwriter Greg Wells, who has co-written with superstars Adele and Katy Perry.
"It reaffirms to me that for most ordinary people, music sounds like Japanese to them if they're not Japanese. This just takes the fear knob and cranks it to 11 for people who do what I and Pharrell do for a living," he told AFP.
E. Michael Harrington, a composer and expert on music law at SAE Institute, Nashville, said that the ruling, if it stands, would mean that "plenty of plaintiffs can go crazy and sue everyone."
"I've never seen a decision that is this poor -- the melody wasn't taken, there were no lyrics taken, there was no chord progressions taken," he said. "If this is the standard, it's below floor level it's so low." ...
The songwriter busbee, who has worked with a diverse array of artists including Shakira and Garth Brooks, said that melody infringement was a real problem but that professionals were careful....
Many songwriters say that they are regularly barraged by claims that they copied other artists, often obscure works that they had never heard of.
"No one knows every single song ever and you would basically have to submit every song to a musicologist, which wouldn't be very cost-effective," busbee said.
One prominent case emerged this year over British soul singer Sam Smith's smash hit "Stay With Me." After growing chatter about similarities between the song and Tom Petty's 1989 hit "I Won't Back Down," Smith quietly added Petty and the US rocker's collaborator Jeff Lynne as co-writers.
Smith, who was born in 1992, said he had never heard "I Won't Back Down" and Petty agreed that he believed the similarities were coincidental....
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