[LAU] [slightly OT] Musical citation (what is allowed?)

[Lorenzo Sutton]

On 30/11/11 13:57, Dave Phillips wrote:
> On 11/30/2011 07:47 AM, Julien Claassen wrote:
>> Hello everyone!
>> I'd like to cite from a relatively recent work (1970), which of course
>> is still copyrighted. So can I do it per se? I'd just like to cite a
>> main phrase for a bit (2-4 bars) I suspect. any hints on that would be
>> very much appreciated.
>
> Hi Julien,
>
> As others have pointed out, the legal status is unclear, probably by the
> nature of the problem. Bear in mind that George Harrison was busted for
> sol-mi-re in My Sweet Lord,

 From a musical point view (if it was ever considered in the court case) 
I think together with same chord progression in certain points (the 
repeated RE- SOL) and very similar melody, the bit where the chords go 
from repeated RE- SOL to DO with basically the same melody might have 
been (more or less consciously) determining (well there's nothing much 
you could really do of course if not go to DO at a certain point). 
Interestingly from that point on the two songs depart the most.

That said, IMHO copyright has reached a point of extreme craziness, 
hopefully copy left licenses will start to slowly spread - but not till 
the majors, publishers and collecting societies stand in the way.

So Julien.. be very careful. I once heard a story of Italian collecting 
society SIAE 'inspectors' bursting in at a no-profit charity party who 
were simply playing CDs on their stereo and fining them some hundreds euro!!

Lorenzo.