Scotch
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I know several of my trusteds aren't Metal fans, so this is a Metal Music warning.
My question here is, at what point does a song, which seems to "borrow" from two other well-known songs in the same genre, touch on copyright infringement? Is it when the song is actually good (not so much in this case)? When the song in question is getting lots of radio play and record sales (again, not in this case)? I present the similarities between the Misfits' "Helena," C.o.C's "Clean My Wounds," and Metallica's "Welcome Home (Sanitarium).
At 1:29 on "Helena," (1999, bottom video) you will notice a striking similarity between this song and about 4:08 on Metallica's "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" (1986, middle). Also, and in my opinion, more obvious are the similarities of the chord progression and tempo C.O.C.'s "Clean My Wounds" (1994, top). To my ear, it's quite close in many ways.
Tell me if you think I'm being a bit over-sensitive here.
Get over it.
Anyway, those of you who read my MOGs know that I tend to say very little, and this is no exception. I just found it a pretty fun, interesting mashup, so I thought I'd share. So listen and fire away.
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You better watch your back! I can already see all the fatwa from the Beatles extremist who demand that you be beheaded...
Fun indeed (even though I've never been fond of remixes or mash-ups)
yeah interesting mash up.. parts of it work and other parts make me feel like i have on 2 radio stations.
OK, someone has got to do something with the lately American Apparel ad, where the lady is wearing the teal dress. Either make it bigger, or get rid of it, because it's quite distracting.
What the f--k am I saying?! Just make it bigger. Seriously. And, can I get a large version to make into my MOG page background?
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Ginger spices up your life ;)
I couldn't agree more even though I don't have any ad when I browse MOG (Don't tell anyone, I use FF with Ad-block)
Oh I was going to make a post on a relative note...I might :)
Can we get a male model on the other side, please? Thanks.
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you're not being over-sensitive - one is definitely influencing the other - however, there probably wouldn't be a copyright problem ... simply because you can't copyright a chord progression - and since 80% of music is Rhythm, its very difficult to pin that down... an actual sound recording (sample) is copyright infringement (unless you pay for it) and then there's the melody (but it includes the rhythm) is usually what is proven in court - lyrics are also considered original - but using the same phrase like say, "I love you" in more than one song is not a problem...
It's a matter of how much of the song - and how much of the original - for example, you used to be able to take 2 bars (before sampling for free) but that is no longer the case.
Hope this helps.
btw - the song doesn't have to be popular - all music is protected from the time of its creation - whether someone else hears it or not - _and we register tunes with the Library of Congress (those that are unpublished) in order to establish proof of their creation date etc...
Hope that helps some more...
Van
Thanks, Van! Copyright law seems about as hard to nail down as warm jello to a wall, and you helped clarify it some for me.
To be honest, I don't honestly think the songs are so close that a copyright case could be made. After all, if litigation-happy Lars Ulrich thought there was one, I'm pretty certain he would have brought it up long ago. The real point was to call the Misfits out, eleven years late.