Can't really comment on this one, though not personally involved, but this case should never have gotten to a jury in the first place. Hopefully the Ninth Circuit will use the opportunity to fix some currently messed up circuit law in this area. I guess that's a little bit of a comment but that's it.
Haven't read the whole thing but man some of those similarities apply to about a million songs. What? A 5-6-1 vocal line? No. Way.
Asshat Canadian vocalists are common also.
They have a government program to encourage it.
By this logic, Bo Diddley should be richer than most countries.
By any logic, Bo Diddley should be richer than most countries, just because. The real question is: is Pharrell Williams still happy?
the song of the summer earned its composers close to $17 million, of which over $5.6 million went to Thicke, about $5.2 million went to Williams and about $700,000 went to T.I. (the rest went to record companies).
Can someone please explain to me what the hell?!?
I understand it was a hit song, but how is this possible?
I thought the music industry was suffering and these days musicians made most of money in concert revenues, merchandise, etc. (Which isn't included in the numbers above.)
A short diversion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrkEDe6Ljqs
Bo diddley played a concert at my middle school. He lived in town.
If Blurred Lines earned its composers close to $17M, then I would assume that, setting "shoulds" aside, as a factual matter, Bo Diddley must actually be richer than most countries.
I think he died a few years ago.
Yes, I thought about clarifying that I meant his estate, but decided it interrupted the structure of my comment.
I just love the idea of musicologists testifying because I know lots of them and they are dorks.
In a lower profile case a thousand years ago Andrew Lloyd Weber had to pay the Puccini estate because "Music of the Night" from Phantom sounds a great deal indeed like the duet from Fanciulla. Moreso, one would say, than the two songs currently in question though IANAM.
The only opera I ever saw was by Puccini.
He will be glad to hear of your loyalty.
Wasn't Puccini writing in like 1904? How was his stuff still under copyright in the '80s?
Almost certainly a European copyright, not an American one.
He died in 1924, so life + 70 = 1994?
May infinite farts be deployed on the balls of Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams alike for their respective sins, but this particular decision seems kind of like a hugely dangerous, bullshit precedent.
20 -- didn't work that way in the US in a way that would have protected Puccini, but it did in Europe. Like I say, absent some bizarre set of circumstances, it had to be a European copyright.
"Andrew Lloyd Weber" gives me a ghastly vision of Der Freischütz with pyrotechnics and a drum kit.
21: You're Canadian. You guys should have a way to put a stop to this without making it hard to be influenced by people who had talent.
Now that shit goes mega-viral and is globally omnipresent, I think the people who make a lot of money in the music industry make an absolute fucking fortune, even more so than they used to. It's the tier below that are stuffed - the hollowing of the pop middle class and all that*.
* I know nothing about the economics of pop music but this is what I have read in several different places.
23: I will gauchely quote my own tweet
Banal, bombastic songs, but on the bright side they're only eight seconds long. #AndrewLloydWebern
Thanks so much for #9. Charley. A perfectly wonderful way to wake up.
Speaking of people who are/were richer than most countries, does anybody remember what was the outcome of the My Sweet Lord plagiarism case.
Oh noes, does this mean Weird Al also owes Marvin Gaye's estate?
I like to believe the unpublished subtitle of Word Crimes was "WAYSALB"
I just love the idea of musicologists testifying because I know lots of them and they are dorks
"Musicologists testifying" reminds me of the episode of the The Good Wife in which the resolution of the plagiarism case rests on a failure to make the distinction between parody and satire.
26. I am failing to track down a remembered quote from (Andrew Porter? Charles Rosen?) about being accused of conspiracy, essentially, against Andrew Lloyd Weber. He said that he was unaware of an organized effort to denounce Lloyd Weber, but if there were one he would happily join it.
Speaking of which, I would endorse the exportation of Lloyd Weber's music to space if it meant its removal from Earth.
Andrew Lloyd Weber's brother Julian, the cellist, was once asked by a journalist if he ever played his brother's music. "Well I suppose you can call it music," replied that loyal sibling.
29: I thought that satire was a recognized exception.
and parody. (which is the relevant point).
29: I thought that satire was a recognized exception.
Though I guess it's analagous (sorry) to the old shotgun-falling-person-murder quandary. If you're not parodying the thing that was copied, but rather a copy, are you still protected?
32 is terrific. Harsh toke, ALW!
That is a good line. It sounds like something from the backstory of a Columbo episode.
The video for blurred lines, which I'd never watched before this thread inspired me to, is really... something. I'm not sure I quite understand the message that's supposed to be conveyed by a backdrop in which "ROBIN THICKE HAS A BIG DICK" is written with silver balloons. Is that supposed to be... a joke? A parody? It can't be a straight-faced conveyance of information?
It's about Belisarius's successful defense of Rome against the Ostrogoths.
38 is correct. If you have to announce it in balloons, congratulations: you have just turned society's most unquestioned valued characteristic into something almost adorably pathetic. Like, are these left over from his birthday party at Chuck E Cheese?
40 gets at part of what's so weird about it. There's also the weird third-person point of view on what is essentially a first-person proclamation. Having the bravado to make a public proclamation about the size of your penis probably projects a sexy level of confidence, or something. Having public third-party testimony about the size of your penis gives the account a lot of credibility. But... manufacturing third-party testimony about the size of your penis, in such a way that its manufactured nature is not hidden but is inherent in the message? What does that convey? What is it meant to convey? It doesn't seem to effectively convey either message, although I guess it gets close to the first, in a "joking" sort of way. The fact that it's written in balloons, and isn't even acknowledged in any way--it's just a static backdrop--only makes it weirder.
Is there more than one video? I watched more than enough of the unrated one and didn't see the balloon-righting. I saw #THICKE though and lots of naked young ladies.
I watched more than enough of the unrated one
No, actually it turns out you didn't watch enough. It's in the latter half.
There is also a hilarious ambiguity, if you're really bored or stoned or something, about who is giving you this message. I mean really the producers of the video. Have they seen it? Have they seen many others?
Yes, hilarious. Although I'm not stoned so I guess I must be really bored.
Oh, there it is, in silver balloons. I am amused, in a Kilroy Was Here kind of way - "there's a canvas, and there's only one thing I could possibly want to say!"
If you keep watching you'll see it more.
ROBIN THICKE HAS A BIG DICK UP HIS BUTT
40 goes some way towards explaining why my cousin flipped his shit at that Chuck E Cheese birthday party when he was 8. I think the joke in 23 depends on the esteemed compositor's name being spelled "Lloyd Webber".
A compositor, a typesetter, and a punchcutter walk into a bar ...
A compositor, a typesetter, and a punchcutter walk into a bar pizza-restaurant-cum-mouse-themed-entertainment-venue ...
God it's really just not possibly to use that Latin preposition that way without it looking creepy, is it?
Mouse cum themed restaurant you say? Yes.
heebie-geebie, what middle school did you go to? You can see and share more Bo Diddley stories at the fan page http://www.facebook.com/weknowdiddley
Spam, you are getting just too smart. I went to Westwood Middle School, home of the Westwood Whirlwinds and standard innocuous hell.
Mouse cum themed restaurant you say?
Everything is priced Unfogged-style in mouse orgasms.
Bo, was my grandfather. I was at that show! And every time I used to drive by there I always thought of it.
I thought the video was making the subtext of most videos text, for a laugh, but I tend to think that most people doing horrible things are just doing it for a laugh.
Bo Diddley's grandchild lurks here?!
And went to a concert with me?
I thought the video was making the subtext of most videos text, for a laugh,
Well, right, that's what I couldn't figure out if that was what was going on or not. I suspect it was really a bit of kidding-on-the-square.
I can't figure out if this would be a more significant historic moment if 55 and 59 aren't spam, or if they are spam. Either way, it feels incredibly significant. Where's the fruit basket when we need it?
63: If Bo Diddley lived in Gainesville, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to imagine that his granddaughter might as well.
The fact that she lurks here, however, is mind-blowing.
Unless that's just mind-blowing spam. Either way: mind-blowing.
I used to live in Gainesville, we actually lived outside of Gainesville in Bronson. I just recently moved to Chicago. Which granddaughter are you talking about?
Sorry, there was a misunderstanding. I am his grandson.
Maybe grandson, sorry. Don't know where I got granddaughter.
This is totally momentous. Welcome, you!
Can't make up for all the royalties, but....
https://www.ediblearrangements.com/fruit-gifts/star-big-arrangement-hd-dp-da-db-3394?t=1426189328917
We Know Bo, do you lurk here or did you see some kind of alert that we were talking about your grandfather?
This thread got awesome, I guess.
I got an alert. What's the deal with the fruit basket?
Aha. The fruit basket is a symbolic welcome to the community.
Once you eat of the symbolic fruit, you have lost your innocence and can never leave.
As I say every time someone new shows up, you don't want the fruit basket. It's a terrible fruit basket.
Also, no shit, Bo Diddley's grandson!?! Not that you need random strangers to tell you your grandfather was awesome, but your grandfather was awesome.
You know, it's kind of lucky that it happened to be the grandson of someone we widely thought very highly of. I mean, what if Steve Miller's grandkid has been lurking here for years, waiting for his opening?
I mean, what if Steve Miller's grandkid has been lurking here for years, waiting for his opening?
We could politely compliment him on his grandfather not being Don Henley, and offer him a fruit basket.
Oh fuck. Sorry, Don Henley's grandkid!
So I finally clicked on the link to the fruit basket (honestly didn't bother when it was sent my way) and am now retroactively bummed that the client didn't send that splendiferous of a version when saved them from the jaws of hell on ap*eal. We rated a definitely weedier Carmen Miranda headdress esque version. But on other hand - the client paid for it to arrive in meat- (fruit?) space! At any rate, a warm welcome to grandchild of illustrious musician!
Thanks guys. Bo was a great man, great person. And deserves to rest in peace. Please join the family's Facebook group as we continue to fight for what's right. Just yesterday Hollis Brown, a band managed by the same management group as Bo's estate, released their version of a new Bo Diddley song. Hollis Brown finished writing the song and performed it. As with many decisions by his management after his passing, it seems to be self serving to use Bo as a marketing platform for a band they represent. Instead of doing what's right and looking out for the best interest of the estate, which could have been done by seeking out bands he has worked with such as The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, or Tom Petty.
These tapes, who my grandfather was proud of and would often say that his management would never get their hands on, were taken while the family was still in mourning. It's been several years since any member of the family has had a conversation with his management.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FWEF4vaY2M&feature=youtu.be to see and comment on the video.
I'm still not completely convinced that this isn't the world's most sophisticated spambot.
Wow, that's obnoxious, WKD. Like I said in 7...
urple, unfortunately I'm not a spambot and there are real human emotions attached to this. I know all too well the helpless feeling of management looking out for their best interest and not my grandfather's.
I've personally kept quiet, thinking things would just settle down, they would do what's right. That didn't happen. So when, I saw the Hollis Brown video it was my last straw. There is no way you can justify looking out for the best interest of the family by allowing an upcoming band to finish and perform unwritten Bo Diddley song and tell us you are looking out for Bo's best interest? I will never believe that. And they can say there is no money involved, that may be true. The reason there is no money involved is because they are using it as a marketing tool, and not as a source of income. That's not in the estate's best interest.
Let's not even get into how proud my grandfather was that he had these tapes. He would proudly say that his management will never get their hands on them. But they knew about them, and came in while the family was still in mourning with a U-Haul and packed up our entire house and decided to sell what they thought was valuable against the family wishes. The tapes were stolen.
unfortunately I'm not a spambot and there are real human emotions attached to this
I want to make a joke about that being exactly what I would expect the world's most sophisticated spambot to say, but at this point I'm afraid it wouldn't go over well.
It sounds like the management company is being terrible.
He would proudly say that his management will never get their hands on them. But they knew about them, and came in while the family was still in mourning with a U-Haul and packed up our entire house and decided to sell what they thought was valuable against the family wishes. The tapes were stolen.
That's terrible. So it sounds like your grandfather had a bad relationship with his management for some time prior to his death. I'm guessing there were contractual reasons why he couldn't just cut ties with them?
urple, I get your joke. It is funny. They've been terrible, but it's taken to another level now that they are able to go unchecked. I'm tired of the mental slavery that management keeps our family in. Try living your life knowing in death your family patriarch is being taken to the cleaners every day. Instead of looking at his life with joy, I get depressed because of this black cloud the management keeps the family under.
He was scared to leave them. He would say, "I'd rather lay with the snakes I know than the snakes I don't."