Copyright infringement or not

[whyterabbyt]

What would be the purpose of having a forum if I just rush off and spend thousands on a lawyer??

Because you'll achieve absolutely nothing concrete via posting in a forum, of course. After all you did ask
" If my ship has not arrived, where is it then?" and the only real answer is that to even get to see a boarding pass for that ship, you'll need to speak a lawyer.

Or were you expecting the forum to provide you with some magically unassailable legal advice that would win you a plagiarism case without the aid of a lawer?

Im pretty sure you werent just expecting a groundswell of popular support that would lead somehow ultimately lead to some random forum member who just happens to be a leading IP lawyer stepping in to offer to take on MJ's estate on a pro bono basis. Were you?

[The_Hidden_Goose]

So we're not doing that?

Damn, I'd just finished laminating the placards for the protest march...

KVRians Against Michael Jackson's Estate And Their Incredibly Plagiaristic Ways And Such.

or KAMJEATIPWAS for short.

[ghettosynth]

damn dups.

[ghettosynth]

Haven't heard the track (at work now, so can't), but you folks have made it sound so weird and creepy that I want to now!

It's a must listen.

[whyterabbyt]

So we're not doing that?

Damn, I'd just finished laminating the placards for the protest march...

KVRians Against Michael Jackson's Estate And Their Incredibly Plagiaristic Ways And Such.

or KAMJEATIPWAS for short.

Dont forget that you'll need funding. So KAMJEATIPWAS_KS for the Kickstarter.

[modobo]

Ok, I've heard ye all, I am grateful for all honest comments. You need know that if I felt I was sure I would not bring it to the forum for a second opinion.

Spot on. It sounds like something that I would have heard on the Dr Demento Show. The creepy casio patch over the budget choir patch about 2:30 or so is genius, if you're trying to top rolly polly fish heads. Then the "lead" comes in at 2:39 followed that little ascending stab, and then the shot and the creepy chords.
Seriously, I think he's missing the boat by taking himself too seriously, it's really good bad production. He should send it to college radio, I think that it might have cult appeal. At the very least it belongs in a B sci-fi "zombies from the future" parody of the star wars bar scene.
Last edited by ghettosynth on Mon Apr 14, 2014 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

May I remind u that that album was my first attempt and it was done at a time when computers had just come on the scene and was not so common in use with music. The sounds came from a Yamaha and a Casio, the vocals were all laid down on a Fostex 8 track, I never went to music school but I found I have a creative talent and I tried to make something of it.

(and it is really weird to hear creepy chord clusters akin to holding down random notes in something trying to be a pop track) - but beyond that, everything I said IS constructive criticism.

The music just gave me a creepy feeling, with the microtonal singing and the out of tune keyboard drones. I don't think that's the vibe he was going for. The fact that the only similarity you can hear is the "lady" in the lyrics makes me wonder if you're (a) hearing the same thing as me or (b) trying a bit too hard to turn this into a judgement on my character.

Actually that was what I was aiming for at the time, I was trying to create a new style of music that sounded different to the norm. The chord clusters and random notes were a feature of all my tracks of that time. If u guys listen to snippets of tracks from my latest album called Beat it, u will notice that there has been a great improvement to the mix.

o the original poster of the music - if my summary of your music offended you, please accept my apologies. But if everybody who had negative criticism was to keep it to themselves, nobody would ever improve.

I do accept all kinds of constructive criticism cos its educative but sometimes criticism can be something else that has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Thats when criticism becomes abusive. I did not make this post to get reports about the quality of the song, I already know that it was a bad attempt and that is why it was redone however, I am still at a loss as why you guys say that there is no similarities between MJ phrase and mine, someone even said that they dont copyright the rhythm just the words. Now I dont even know why bother to copyright at all. In the the posted video I even made the attempt at playing both songs together so that the similarity in the phrase and melody becomes clearer but it would appear people are listening to other things in the music and making judgement on beats, instruments, etc. Someone was talking bout the word lady in it, what's that got to do with anything? I want judgement on the phrase slave to the rhythm, not just the words but the way it is sang, the way u will play those notes on a keyboard compared to playing my dance to the rhythm on the same keyboard, IS THERE A SIMILARITY in the NOTES and the relative DURATION between them?????

[Frantz]

If u guys listen to snippets of tracks from my latest album called Beat it

Beat It!? MJ stole from you again. Call the lawyers immediately!!!!

[Tricky-Loops]

Without a link it might be difficult to find your new album...

[Sendy]

But we've been over this... Most of us have agreed that the "dance to the rhythm" part has the same lyrics and the same rhythm - but we've also explained that such an element is too short and too generic to really be caseworthy. It's one bar of music, five notes. It's almost as trivial as a hip-hop artist trying to claim copyright on the lyrics "uh, yeah, a-come on!".

As for the melody, there's somewhat of a correlation, but again it's just too generic in my opinion for you to have a case. If I were to put "dance to the rhythm" to music, I would use exactly the same notes, in the same rhythm as would many others - it's the natural cadence of the words.

You've asked for advice, and it's been pretty unanimous. However, if you genuinely feel wronged, don't let us stop you from taking further action, or at least talking to a qualified legal expert (which the majority of us are not). I think you'll end up wasting your money, and taking on the Jackson estate would make David and Goliath seem like a fairly matched fight.

[Sendy]

Without a link it might be difficult to find your new album...

At the very least, it seems the original poster got a new follower from this thread.

[whyterabbyt]

Just for the record, when complaining about copyright infringement, its probably not the most sensible thing in the world to just cut and paste the entirety of the code from emusic.com page, verbatim, onto your own website.

[vurt]

it was me that mentioned the word "lady" being in it. i just wanted you to rest easy in your bed knowing throbbing gristle probably wouldnt be suing for any copyright infringement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzDvpT-MjYs&hd=1

[modobo]

Throbbing Gristle - Hamburger Lady my foot. Vurt! u lost d plot. So my music sounds like that to u? Hilarious
http://www.amazon.com/Beat-It-DeBayzee/dp/B005X1L4B0 make sure u buy a copy. Emusic droped that page so I gotta find time to sort that out. Its not easy being an upcoming artist, all u guys know is the finished product, without good luck it takes a lot of stumblings b4 u reach the top if u ever

[vurt]

no, your music doesnt sound like that to me.
others said it did, i disagreed. have you read the posts in this thread? hilarious indeed!

[Lode_Runner]

I'm hearing:
DeBayzee : Don't dance to her rhythm
M Jackson: Slave to the rhythm
So the lyrics aren't actually that similar on a word by word basis.

Also, the album was compiled using unreleased tracks from MJ's archive that were recorded over several decades. I found this on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_un ... kson_songs
"Jackson worked on the song during the Dangerous sessions, and completed in 1998."

Note - Dangerous was released in 1991 - even if he didn't complete the song until 1998, he was probably only working on the final mix by that stage. I would think it's highly likely he'd have had the hook in place as one of the first parts he wrote of the song, so chances are he'd written that line during the early 90s.