Respond to the prompt below with a minimum of 150 words and include at least two concepts or vocabulary terms from the textbook or lecture.
Copyright Laws. You Be the Judge.
Background: The advent of digital sampling had a dramatic impact on popular music in the early 1980s. Some artists discussed in Chapter 12, such as Afrika Bambaataa, were accused of copyright violations. What does U.S. copyright law actually say about this material? Review the following information and consider the following cases.
U.S. copyright law states that the owner of copyright has exclusive rights to…reproduce the copyrighted work. This applies to all media, including popular songs. However, copyright law also allows for the fair use of copyrighted work and states that using copyrighted material for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.
The legal criteria for fair use is further defined as follows:
In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include
- the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
- the nature of the copyrighted work;
- the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
- the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
CASE #1: In 1980, The Police recorded the song Don’t Stand So Close to Me. The song, written by Sting, earned The Police a Grammy Award in 1982 for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. In 1985, the band Dire Straits released the album Brothers in Arms, which contained the Grammy-winning song Money for Nothing. Mark Knopfler is listed as the sole songwriter. When recording Money for Nothing, Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits invited Sting to sing the line I want my MTV as part of the song. That line uses the same melody as the line Don’t stand so close to me from The Police’s song Don’t Stand So Close to Me. Lawyers from Sting’s publishing company, A&M records (reportedly without Sting’s support), claimed that, because of the use of the musical quotation, Sting should have been given co-writing credit for the song.
Listen carefully to both songs below. Do you feel that the quotation was a violation of Sting’s copyright or you feel that the quotation falls under any of the fair use exceptions? Explain your answer.
THE REAL-LIFE VERDICT: Subsequent pressings of Brothers in Arms listed Sting as the co-writer of Money for Nothing, and Sting and A&M records were financially compensated as the co-writers of the song.
CASE #2: In 2008, Coldplay released the album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, which eventually won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 2009. The day after Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends was nominated for seven Grammy Awards, guitarist Joe Satriani filed suit claiming that the song Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends violated the copyright on Satriani’s song If I Could Fly from his 2004 album Is There Love in Space.
Listen carefully to both songs below. Do you feel that Coldplay’s song violated Satriani’s copyright, or do you feel that the quotation falls under any of the fair use exceptions? Explain your answer.
THE REAL LIFE VERDICT: In 2009 the case was dismissed. It is possible (though not publicly known) that a financial settlement had been reached. Under the terms of the dismissal Coldplay were not required to admit any wrongdoing.
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