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Plagiarism

WickedPissah

WickedPissah

Jan 22, 2008
2,151
3
Boston
#1
Posted this in Misc., but decided that OT gets more traffic and we're all musicians anyway.

Ok, so, I was looking into modifying The Awakening by Les into pickstyle, and I saw this catchy little part of the tab that I liked and thought I could do something with. With that said, I moved considerably up the fretboard and played something similar to that part a lot slower and didn't slap. If I call this my own little groove dealie, is it plagiarism?
 
#6
It's only plagiarism if you "copy" all or part of the music, writing, etc., and do not credit the author or source of the original.

If you create something based on, or similar to, someone else's work, it's still your composition.

It's common for songwriters and composers to "arrange" an existing piece of music for a chorus or orchestra or band from the original format to a new one. The compositions original author still gets the credit. An example of this is if a rock band were to arrange a Mozart piece to perform, it would still be Mozart's work and he would still need to be credited.

Also, the current owner of the original music would need to give permission and financial compensation.
 
#8
WickedPissah said:
Posted this in Misc., but decided that OT gets more traffic and we're all musicians anyway.

Ok, so, I was looking into modifying The Awakening by Les into pickstyle, and I saw this catchy little part of the tab that I liked and thought I could do something with. With that said, I moved considerably up the fretboard and played something similar to that part a lot slower and didn't slap. If I call this my own little groove dealie, is it plagiarism?
Click to expand...

Speaking of plagerism, les just covers the awakening, its not his. lot of people dont seem to know that though. ;)
 
#15
basically, what i do is

D----------5-5---------5-7-11
A----5/6/7-------5/6/7
E-0------------00

rather than

G:----------7------------7-9-7|
D:------7h9----------7h9-------|
A:------------------------------|
E:-0-0----------0-0-------------|
 
#18
Plagiarism is an exact replica or a "close imitation" of someone else's work. The laws are hazy, I guess in reality it's only plagiarism if one can recognize that you stole it from someone else.

In your case, if you change the tempo and some notes around and another person could not recognize that you took it from someone else, then it would be more "music inspired by" than direct plagiarism.

In music, I believe the only things that can be copyrighted are melody and lyrics. And even that--music is a finite number of notes of which only certain notes sound good together. So one is bound to have similar chord progressions in songs--and I'd bet a lot of songs might even have the same lyrics in a few places.

I'd go with the "good artists borrow, but great artists steal" and say make the musical phrase your own and change it up a bit and call it yours, with Les being your inspiration.
 
#20
WickedPissah said:
the way i use it is more of a "porn groove" type thing rather than a funky slap dealie. I guess its okay then. thanks dudes.
Click to expand...

As musicians we're all to some degree the sum of our influences. I find myself coming up with licks and riffs all the time and then later realizing they were inspired by one of my favorite bass players. Using someone else's composition as a jumping off point to take it in a new direction isn't plagiarism.

Paris Hilton blatantly ripping off UB40's "Kingston Town" for her crap single is plagiarism. Especially egregious to me because the first time I heard it I turned up the radio thinking it was UB40.:mad:

For reference, this and this are good examples of what is (or at least borders on being) plagiarism.
 

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