[LINK] "Men at work" up a gum tree

[Roger Clarke]

At 21:48 +1100 4/2/10, grove at zeta.org.au wrote:
>Yes, let's look at something called "sampling law" and the various rap,
>R&B (the worst misnamed contrivance of rubbish ever conceived) and HipHop
>etc.  ...

I can't tell the difference between any randomly-selected pair of 
'country & western' songs, whether out of the US or nominally out of 
Australia.  (I get very confused about Keith Urban.  *Where's* he 
from again?).

I also can't tell one song from another in modern musicals (of the 
Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber variety).  Surely they write every 
number from the same palette (or pallet, if you're feeling really 
jaundiced).

I never have this problem with orchestral music from about 1780 to 1930.

Am I a boring old traditionalist.  Well, yes, obviously.

But the question is to what extent distinctions can be meaningfully 
made among the pieces of music the copyright in which companies spend 
time  and vast quantities of money fighting over.

Am I the only person around who's prepared to say that either the 
judge, or the law, is a total idiot?


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
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Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University