>>The same standard does not apply to >>melodies and lyrics, where infringement exists even in the case of >>accidental similarities. > > That sounds a bit dangerous; it sounds as if the standards for similarity >are much stricter for lyrics or melodies than for things like rhythms or >sequences of chords, and make no allowance for accidental similarity. > With melodies, how many notes of similarity would there have to be? >Is it >defined, or would a judge decide in an individual copyright infringement case? >And would it count if the melodies were just similar, but not identical. (The >notes might be the same, but the rhythm slightly or greatly different - or it >might be in a different key - or the rhythm might be the same (and very >distinctive), but the notes quite or even very different - and so on.) > If you are dealing with small enough portions of melody, it would be >almost >impossible to compose a melody without bits of it being very similar to other >melodies. It would be a bit like trying to write a novel making sure that no >3- or 4-word phrases didn't occur somewhere else in other novels. > > Regards, > Michael Edwards.
Which, of course, leads to a new career path: "forensic musicologist." Just in time, too, considering how bad the job market is for "academic musicologists"! John John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
