Beware of the ****ERS

[orion]

Last night i made a new track i've recorded , nothing much , not a whole song. I am an intermidiate guitarist (I play for
3.5 years). I know a guy who is in a 'known' band. They already released a full length album. Well anyway , I sent that thing i've recorded to that guy who is in that band, to ask his opinion. Suddenly he says , "I am going to steal that intro lick". Blatently. I thought he was joking , ( well i hoped!). But the **** meant it. After some discussion he said: " i can steal it , our band is with SABAM anyway." . He said he would be saved from copyright or wathever. The ****er. Altough my taste says that intro is beginners stuff , it doesn't feel good when you hear that.
I tell you beware of ****ers who are out to steal your music because there are more then you might think.

Anyway i made him afraid saying my mp3 was copyrighted with some algorithm. Then he said it was weak of me doing that.I bet i hope with his stupid brain he believes it.

[Koala]

This does suck, and you should always copyright your stuff before passing it around.
On the other hand you should feel proud that a "BIG SHOT" is even wanting toi steal stuff from you, i guess that just shows who the bigger shot really is.

Take it easy and sue his butt ;D

Although come to think about it you cant copyright riffs or licks can you?

c ya around

[Unhorizon]

I know it sucks, I would be pissed if someone took one of my licks, but then again, it is only one lick, and it is pretty cool that someone as accomplished as him feels the need to steal someone else's licks, thats incredibly lame in my opinion. Just get famous and show him whos got the last laugh now! lol

Rock on

[fader198]

Well, technically, you could take him to court over that if you have a dated recording of you playing it and your name as author. That being said, it would be hard to win. You would have to prove that the lick this guy played was closely related to the way you played it. Secondly, you would have to prove that he had access to the recording. So basically if you have proof that you wrote it, the songs are close enough playing wise, and you can prove that he had access to your song, you have a case. Even then it is a crapshoot. Poor man's copyright is viable in court but courts rarely adhere to it.

[ReinierK]

Actually,

you can copyright about anything... It's called: author's right...
Whenever you write something, be it lyrics, music, books, whatever, you have the rights over that piece.

But there are some difficulties with that, because you have to have proof that you wrote something earlier than someone else. This may be difficult, but the best thing is to keep some sort of 'record' with everything you wrote and include dates with that.

This way you can prove that you've come up with something, while the other (who ripped your stuff) probably doesn't keep such a record and therefore he will always lode his right on the piece...

Might only be worth it if you're thinking about going to court... But I surely recommend it to people who play for money :)

Cheers

[UltimaRage]

That sucks. What an a-hole...... :(

[madhatter@skool]

This is how I understand copyrighted stuff. Once you create something, it is copyrighted--by the fact that you created. When you get something "copyrighted" (like with the US government) you are actually just registering your copyright. Meaning, it was copyrighted when you created it, you are now "dating" when you copyrighted it, so you have proof that you came with something on a certain date.

I've heard (not sure if it is true) that a good way to have proof of when you create something, here in the US at least, is to mail yourself the recording. Send it certified mail to your house, & DON'T OPEN IT!!! Keep it in a safe place. Something about the mail being certified by the federal government & having the postmarked date are proof. Anyone heard of this?

This is a cheap way of doing it. It would be more official & have more weight to register your stuff with the copyright office of the government. From what I understand, it is better to wait until you have a few songs recorded/transcribed & send alot @ once; it will cost you less.

I don't how this works with just a "riff" or "lick", orion, it would be a different story if he stole a complete song.

Like everyone said, it does suck, but at least he only stole a riff, not a whole song.