nanggaling na dito yan si jim brickman sa pinas

kasi kung hindi naman, bakit walang reklamo si nelson del castillo?

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Well, I’m educating you. Music is a BROAD GRAY AREA. You see, you can’t write 8 notes and call it a song. It takes more than that for a jumble of notes to be fully realized into a song. There’s is nothing in the law that indicates the condition of WHEN plagiarism occurs.

You see, when I said professional, it is NOT as a matter of attitude, but of STATUS. You get paid for one song, you’re a pro, sadly enough. If you understood the links you gave, and if you truly know the workings of pros in the industry, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

One can still copy 8 notes or more, and still he can’t be charged BY LAW of plagiarism if one used a different chord patter or arrangement. Eight notes in music when compared to poetry, is nothing more than a mere sentence, a line. You can’t plagiarize a line after all, and 8 notes is NOT a song.

That’s why the limit is 4 melodic bars, because 8 notes is hardly enough to contest or even prove plagiarism.

So, show me one with JUST 8 NOTES, and I’ll drop the argument.

In music, 4 bars is equivalent to a stanza (a paragraph, or a quatrain in poetry). You copy more than that, you’re plagiarizing. You copy less, then you’re basically cheating. Doing both are WRONG in my book.

Regardless, what I am saying is I don’t have respect for those who abuse the limit. I don’t have respect for songwriters who even TAGALIZE popular English (or other language) songs for profit for that matter. And because of that, I am very mindful of my own songs that I DITCH anything that sounds the same to something else.

Regarding my case, I still would have won without video evidence. Copyright is by VIRTUE OF CREATION. I would have proven this nonetheless, because I have proof other than the video, but the video was the STRONGEST proof. If you understood what I said, you would realized that.

First of all, I am not trying to educate you on IP law nor am I saying I am an authority on the law or anything else dealing with it. That is why I included links to those sites. However, I would like to point out to you that although you feel that you are very familiar with the law, it becomes clear now that a professional you are not. Maybe, if you’d come down from your pedestal, your point would be clearer and you may start to disabuse yourself of the opinion that only PROFESSIONALS can ever possibly know the law as you do or that the four bar limit is FACT. In my UNPROFESSIONAL opinion, four bars can contain a so many notes essentially making plagiarism almost impossible to prove. If a PROFESSIONAL SUCH AS YOURSELF were to compose a song containing 4 quarter notes per measure, 4 measures would produce 16 notes, correct? Wouldn’t that place you more at risk for plagiarism because one would have to copy all 16 notes before the other can make a case? If 8 consecutive notes were to be STANDARD, only 2 bars would have to be copied before plagiarism can be claimed. That would be more favorable, wouldn’t it? Besides, I only remember the “8 notes” thing from the rules of a popular professional songwriting competition before and that’s where I based it on.

Secondly, since we’re on the topic of ownership and plagiarism, discussions should concentrate on what is stated in the law and NOT on what the standards are for YOU PROFESSIONALS. The only reason you won your case was because, as you said, there was video evidence. Without that, you would have lost your case miserably. Without that video, you would not have been able to prove in court–which is where it will be argued–that the other party copied your PROFESSIONAL work of art BECAUSE THERE IS NO LAW stating that 8 notes or 4 bars is the LEGAL REQUIREMENT before plagiarism can be claimed. You can shout to the whole world about the 4 bar requirement but the court will still be the final arbiter, INFORMED OPINIONS notwithstanding.

By the way, yes I am a professional because I take my music seriously, I am PROFESSIONAL with my dealings, I get adequate compensation, and I keep both feet on the ground unlike some PROFESSIONALS out there…

It’s such a shame that KATHA is now defunct. They would have helped a lot of PROFESSIONAL musicians fight for their rights especially in this day and age where any Tom, Dick and Harry can claim being a PROFESSIONAL.

Alvin

So something more definite is required BY LAW to mandate and prove ownership. And that is where the 4-bar rule comes in.

And no, though it may not be in the IP law, the 4 melodic bar limit is a standard AMONGST PROFESSIONAL SONGWRITERS. I’m assuming you’re not one, since pros know this for a FACT. If you still doubt it, go ask a pro songwriter if you happen to know one.

I’m a founding member of KATHA (which is sadly now defunct). The 4-bar rule came up during my case against another individual who misrepresented himself as a producer. I won the case because the song he stole had video evidence of it being performed and being mentioned as MY composition.

Hence, ignorance is no excuse, because though there is no wrong or opinion (pun intended), there is such a a thing as having an INFORMED OPINION.

We will pray for you Nelson. “The truth will always prevail!!!”

That said, may I direct you to more reliable sources in the following links:

http://www.ehow.com/about_4883382_music-copyright-laws.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

Copyright laws secure a creator’s ownership of her intellectual property–products of her mind that can be both artistic and commercial in nature. In the case of musicians and lyricists, these are the musical compositions they create. This ownership or property right applies to the expressed structure of the idea or words, not the ideas or words themselves. So a musician or lyricist does not own the copyright to the notes or words used in a composition he creates, but to the specific arrangement of the notes and words of that particular composition.

http://www.copyright.gov/

In the end, it’s up to Nelson to decide to take the necessary steps to protect his intellectual property, not the well-meaning people in a blog…

The 4 melodic bars IS standard, much like 4 lines in a poem. Yes, it’s too long, that’s why songwriters ABUSE it. They get away with 3 or 3 and a half. But, just in case you MISSED what I said, even copying the intro of a song is already plagiarism, at least, for me.

Personally, I won’t be caught dead ACTIVELY copying a piece of a composition. Herein where one’s DELICADEZA comes in question. I cannot in good faith accept just an apology especially when it is followed by “it was an honest mistake.”

There’s no such thing when it comes to plagiarism.