Am I plagiarizing by playing a riff in a different octave and bpm with different effects on it??

Submitted by Individual-Morning27 t3_zns1al in Music

Just a guy who doesn’t want to get sued and can’t find any useful info anywhere. If I take a riff (let’s say the lead from What’s My Age Again by blink-182) and move it to a lower octave and play it slower with reverb delay, and all the other instrumentals, vocals, and lyrics would be different, am I still in danger of committing plagiarism?

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phiwong t1_j0ivt2x wrote

Plagiarism is maybe best thought of as an ethical violation. There are a whole lot of contexts to it. There is a difference between plagiarism and copyright violation.

I am not a lawyer but plagiarism, in many circumstances, (depends on location! so beware) is not a crime.

Can someone be sued for plagiarism. Sure, it might be possible. If you're taking someone else's ideas and passing it off as your own, then it probably increases the chances. So it might be wise to attribute it - at least that is transparent.

Saying that, there are instances of uses such as obvious satire or parody that are probably not going to be actionable.

In terms of music, lots of things have to be in context. It is hard to claim copyright on simple and obvious things (simple chord progressions, a few notes in a bar or two of music, short phrases in the lyrics etc). People have tried, but it is a hard and expensive case to win.

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AmazingSpiderFan3 t1_j0ix3ci wrote

I don’t know what you’re doing with the music but it would be best to credit the original if you are using some of their work, even if you alter it.

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aliceanonymous99 t1_j0j7ur0 wrote

You need to change it at least 20% to avoid being sued, they also can’t mistake yours for the original. If you avoid these you’re golden.

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Individual-Morning27 OP t1_j0j7xxf wrote

How do you measure a rip-off percentage?

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aliceanonymous99 t1_j0j8d10 wrote

I’ll give a perfect example, Dr. Dre would always change the octave of other artists music. He uses the drums for when the levee breaks by led zeppelin on Lyrical Gangbang and wasn’t sued. Also credit any artist if you make money. If you don’t make money you’re fine.

I’ve used other bands drums on songs and never had a problem. A lot of producers share samples since it makes life so much easier. Nickelbacks drums are fantastic to use

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viktorkry t1_j0ivc4z wrote

I would think yes based on Joe satriani vs Coldplay. Ended being settled out of court, but why would Coldplay settle if they thought they had a chance at a successful defense?

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quickdecide- t1_j0jbs7r wrote

Because lawyer fees and it's bad publicity for that to go on too long

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pickles55 t1_j0jcmiy wrote

Defense means paying your lawyers more. If they think the lawyers would cost more than a settlement then it makes sense to settle even if they don't think the lawsuit will succeed

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