What counts as plagiarism in music?

[TheoAllen]

First off, I'm not sure if this appropriate sub forum. Please move if you feel it isn't right

This question pops up when I dig my old resources references, and I found a music that very similar to my music I created. And I sort of recalled that I was inspired by this music in the past. So similar that I was wondering if it's actually some kind of 'plagiarims', but even with that it's not actually the same either.

The music in question is this
At the beginning, is the original source of my 'inspiration' (credit: soleilmusique)
Started from 1:39 is my music I created back in 7 years ago.

Now, what's qualifying a music is being plagiarized? I know the theory about at maximum of 8 bars before you can call it plagiarized. But what exactly is 8 bars. A main lead melody? chords? or a progression? I don't think you can sue a music for being a same progression, but I'm not sure either about that. Thought?

 

[Tai_MT]

I honestly have no idea. I mean, you've got "Four Chords Songs" (Look up Axis of Awesome, Four Chords Songs), which aren't plagiarism... But, if something sounds similar enough, it just is.

I don't recall the song "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke getting sued and losing for sounding basically exactly the same as "Got To Give It Up" by Marvin Gaye. But, Vanilla Ice was sued and lost for using music from "Under Pressure" by Queen in his song "Ice Ice Baby".

I'm not sure there's a "hard and fast" rule. Usually, it's better to just ask permission if you know it's from somewhere else.

Otherwise, I think it's just whomever has the better lawyer wins those fights.

 

[Faherya]

Basically, a sequence of chords and / or notes with the same time interval can be considered plagiarism. Some composers differentiate one from the other, but in the end it gives the same. Let's say this applies to a phrase (term most commonly used in soils) or its subdivisions (bars). In my view, one phrase is enough to consider plagiarism.

 

[kovak]

You better watch this, it'll be easier to understand and also answer your question

 

[Sharm]

This is a pretty thorny issue, especially with music. Things that are clearly ripping off other music directly are legally considered just fine and others that are accidentally a little similar get sued into oblivion. There's just no line anywhere, not even a sandy one.

When it comes to inspiration and references in artwork (I'm not a musician!) I find it much easier to avoid any uncomfortable similarities the more I use at once. I'm sure the same trick would work with music.

I think the melody line is just fine, but everything else is uncomfortably similar. You should probably mix it up a bit more.

 

[TheoAllen]

Yah, problem with making music especially the melodic one is sometimes you suuuure you know you've heard the melody somewhere else but don't know exactly where. Some (like this case), are deliberately almost like a carbon copy, but different lead melody or so. But some other time you just didn't take any reference everywhere, yet in other times, you've heard a similar music made by someone else. Happened to me as well, although it just only less than 4 bars, so it should be alright.

I'm wondering if you could make a copyright(?) for a certain pattern of melody. I mean, almost every game has 'theme song', right?

 

[Sharm]

I do know that melody is more protected than the accompaniment. The big problem is that copyright is a civil law, meaning that it all comes down to who is and isn't sued for what. Each judge is going to have their own thoughts on the subject and that's what makes it so hard to pin down.