It's ridiculously reductive and misses swathes of nuance. Apparently anyone who uses an A minor chord is derivative by that logic. Anyone using an ABCDCAECCF song structure is derivative. Anyone using drums is derivative!
Using its logic, one could argue that your own comment is derivative - it uses the English language, you used the HN comments system rather than making your own, you included a vimeo link like so many other people on HN, you used the block quote symbol instead of coming up with your own.
When I record noise in a coffee shop, I'm using a technique that many other people have used, yes. However, I'm the only one sitting in that exact position, using that exact microphone, with those exact people around me talking about those specific things at that specific moment in time. So the sound I record is not derivative. It's special. It's unique. No-one else has recorded that sound. No-one else accidentally spilled his coffee halfway through the recording and mumbled "ah sh" in my voice.
If you want to be black and white, yes all art is derivative. No-one has ever created anything purely original ever. In the whole world and the entirety of time. But that misses the point. My personality, wide ranging influences, strange thoughts, ideas and mistakes are in that recording.
Also, good artists copy, great artists steal. Every time I show new tracks to my friends I try to ask who they think the influences were. It's a really fun game because 90% of the time it shows me more about their taste in music than mine.
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WRT Copyright law.
I can only speak for the UK here, but we are one of the biggest exporters of music in the world. We export more of our music than most other nations. That's not evidence of a system that is stifling creativity. Far from it!
PRS For Music pays out around £700 million to UK rights holders annually. And that's just one part of the music industry!
This stuff about exclusive licenses also isn't really a problem. All those Beastie Boys, Eminem and Will Smith tracks will have cleared the Led Zeppelin sample (mentioned in Part 1), negotiating a share of the royalty with the original rightsholders. I know this because I used to look at these royalty shares every day in PRS systems (used to work there).
Sure, if you want to use a sample from a popular song in your work, you have to do a bit of extra work and maybe sacrifice a bit of cash. Hell, maybe you can't actually clear it and need to replace that sample.
But you're trying to use someone else's work directly, and without modification, so they should be fairly paid for that. You could have created your own element to fit in that space, but you didn't.
Sampling actually has an interesting loophole BTW. If the sample is modified beyond recognition, it is considered a new work and doesn't need to be cleared/attributed.
Finally, just for the sake of clarity, the stuff he was talking about wrt Led Zeppelin stealing from other artists actually sits in the area known as Arrangements. These are a whole weird grey area, which is why people go through through lengthy court battles.
It's ridiculously reductive and misses swathes of nuance. Apparently anyone who uses an A minor chord is derivative by that logic. Anyone using an ABCDCAECCF song structure is derivative. Anyone using drums is derivative!
Using its logic, one could argue that your own comment is derivative - it uses the English language, you used the HN comments system rather than making your own, you included a vimeo link like so many other people on HN, you used the block quote symbol instead of coming up with your own.
When I record noise in a coffee shop, I'm using a technique that many other people have used, yes. However, I'm the only one sitting in that exact position, using that exact microphone, with those exact people around me talking about those specific things at that specific moment in time. So the sound I record is not derivative. It's special. It's unique. No-one else has recorded that sound. No-one else accidentally spilled his coffee halfway through the recording and mumbled "ah sh" in my voice.
If you want to be black and white, yes all art is derivative. No-one has ever created anything purely original ever. In the whole world and the entirety of time. But that misses the point. My personality, wide ranging influences, strange thoughts, ideas and mistakes are in that recording.
Also, good artists copy, great artists steal. Every time I show new tracks to my friends I try to ask who they think the influences were. It's a really fun game because 90% of the time it shows me more about their taste in music than mine.
------
WRT Copyright law.
I can only speak for the UK here, but we are one of the biggest exporters of music in the world. We export more of our music than most other nations. That's not evidence of a system that is stifling creativity. Far from it!
PRS For Music pays out around £700 million to UK rights holders annually. And that's just one part of the music industry!
This stuff about exclusive licenses also isn't really a problem. All those Beastie Boys, Eminem and Will Smith tracks will have cleared the Led Zeppelin sample (mentioned in Part 1), negotiating a share of the royalty with the original rightsholders. I know this because I used to look at these royalty shares every day in PRS systems (used to work there).
Sure, if you want to use a sample from a popular song in your work, you have to do a bit of extra work and maybe sacrifice a bit of cash. Hell, maybe you can't actually clear it and need to replace that sample.
But you're trying to use someone else's work directly, and without modification, so they should be fairly paid for that. You could have created your own element to fit in that space, but you didn't.
Sampling actually has an interesting loophole BTW. If the sample is modified beyond recognition, it is considered a new work and doesn't need to be cleared/attributed.
Finally, just for the sake of clarity, the stuff he was talking about wrt Led Zeppelin stealing from other artists actually sits in the area known as Arrangements. These are a whole weird grey area, which is why people go through through lengthy court battles.