There’s something about songwriters penning songs about home. You can find more information about using someone else’s work here.įor a good review of music plagiarism cases heard before the English courts, check the CREATe Public Lecture by Dr Simon Anderson.“Don’t you think I’d better get myself back home…” - ‘True Blue’ by Rod Stewart Usually the court focuses on the quality of the parts taken, not necessarily the amount, and the circumstances of each work. The meaning of these terms is not precise and they are considered on a case-by-case basis. According to UK Copyright Law, using another’s song is copyright infringement when ‘the work as a whole or any substantial part of it’ has been copied. Is there a maximum length that can be used from an original song?Īs there are no rules about the exact number of notes, there are no provisions about a maximum length that can be used from an original song either. You can find more information about originality here and here.ģ. This can be crucial when writing the lyrics of a song for example, the fact that U2’s Pride (In the Name of Love) is copyright protected should not prevent you from writing your own song about Martin Luther King, Jr., as long as your work is substantially different and you add your own skill, labour, judgement and effort on it. For example, Fourscore by Lord David Dundas – the signature tune used by Channel 4 for ten years – is copyright protected even though it includes only four different notes.Īnother basic principle of copyright law is that it protects only the expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves. A tune consisting of only a few notes can carry copyright. It is the quality of the part taken that matters, not the quantity. The number of notes used in a song is not a criterion to assess originality.
In order to be protected, your song needs to be fixed in writing or some other permanent form. In the UK, your song is considered original, and thus protected by copyright, if you use your own skill, labour, judgement and effort to create it as opposed to merely interpret someone else’s piece of music. Although it is natural to be inspired by other songs when producing new music, there is a fine dividing line between simply being inspired and copying. In UK Copyright Law there are no rules about the exact number of notes that can be used from someone else’s song. How many notes can be used from someone else’s song? a video), then you would need to get permission from the copyright owner.Ģ. Therefore, whilst you are allowed to lend a CD you have purchased to your family or friends, if you want to use some of its tracks in the production of new work (e.g. It is important to notice that the exhaustion of rights applies only to the single analogue copy you purchase, not to the creative work within the analogue copy.
Usually in these cases the end-user licence states what you can or cannot do with that work. However, this principle does not always apply to online distribution, meaning that if you purchase something online, like a song from iTunes, you often cannot share or lend that digital copy. This means that you can resell or lend that copy to others without the copyright owner’s consent. a CD, a DVD, a book), the rightsholder cannot control the distribution of that copy any longer (this is called exhaustion of rights). In the UK, when you purchase an analogue copy of a work (e.g. Is it possible to lend purchased content to others?