Music Business/Law Tips - "Avoid Infringements"

In the wake of the recent Marvin Gaye/Blurred Lines court decision, many songwriters are concerned about possibly getting sued for similarities in their works with others. In reality, copyright lawsuits are actually rare and hard/expensive to win, and are all based on the test of "substantial similarity". However, if a writer is going to borrow or be inspired by an existing work without a license, try and stay clean of any potential issues by keeping the following guidelines in mind: (1) make sure any sample is very short (like a few seconds or notes); (2) make sure the sample is obscure and/or distorted; (3) try to find a sample that is covered by a creative commons license (permission already granted); (4) try and use a public domain work (e.g., anything more than 70 years old is normally fair use). Ben McLane Esq benmclane.com