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From: lutton@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Unconscious plaigarism? - (nf)
Message-ID: <1770@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Oct-84 00:47:01 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.1770
Posted: Tue Oct 30 00:47:01 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Nov-84 01:47:52 EST
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#R:sunybcs:-75400:inmet:6600212:000:623
inmet!lutton    Oct 28 19:42:00 1984

<>
You can quote up to 4 notes of a song legally, without being
liable for plagiarism.  At the 5th note, plagiarism begins.
The court case that set this precedent was one in which the
publishers of Handel's "Halleluia Chorus" sued the publishers
of "Yes, We Have No Bananas."  The decision was that "Bananas"
was not a ripoff of "Halleluia."  (I don't know why Handel's
piece was not considered to be in the public domain.)
     Also, nobody has copyright to the C major scale, so
Kraftwerk's "Kometenmelodie" (ascending) and Arlen's
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (descending with ornamentation)
are safe from prosecution.