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Comment by moomin | Hacker News Reader

My (least) favourite example of this is that Iggy Azalea gets a song-writing credit for Classic Man. http://www.mtv.com/news/2215334/iggy-azalea-fancy-classic-ma...

If you listen to the two, you can spot the similarity but... it’s nowhere close to sampling or plagiarism. They’ve got different melodies, different feels, just a similar prominent keyboard sound.

But no-one wants a court case, so the writers of Fancy get a cut.

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My least favourite was Quentin Tarantino demanding a songwriting credit for Fun Lovin' Criminals' Scooby Snacks, just because it sampled a few seconds of dialogue from Pulp Fiction.

Would you prefer he demanded royalties instead, as their label would if he used a few seconds of their output in one of his films? Or that they just be able to use the sample without credit or royalty?

He did demand royalties, he gets a 40% cut as well.

Roughly 40% of the lyrics are dialogue from two of his movies or describing scenes from those movies (Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs), so a 40% cut of the songwriters' share of royalties is appropriate.

He didn't write any of the song. He just made something that contributed to it.

Saying he wrote part of it is like the person who mixed Davinci's paint claiming to have painted part of the Mona Lisa.

It's more like if Mona Lisa incorporated a background from another artist.

Sets a pretty stupid precedent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX1iIx-LMYM

This song's lyrics solely samples audio from Indiana Jones - 100% of the royalties go to Disney? Morally, I don't think Disney have any right to it, but I could maybe tolerate some payment - however, proportionality?

In a (more) perfect world, they would've paid a reasonable license fee to use the sample and been done with it.

Maybe a quick Google before going on the attack next time:

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/gangstas-of...

At least in that case and the Blurred Lines case there was some component that was verifiably the same.

(But yeah, QT was and is a jerk. Especially when you consider how he ripped off City on Fire.)

What component was veritably the same in the Blurred Lines case? I've listened to both songs and the 'sameness' to my ears is akin to two rock tunes using similar power chords and drum beat.

Okay, so this is annoying but I could swear there was a component (backing vocals?) that was the exact riff that “I know you want it” was, but now I can’t find it.

Whether or not it exists, the Blurred Lines decision was dumb and dangerous, even if Marvin Gaye >>>> Robin Thicke.

Not exactly an unusual or highly distinctive sound, either. I could see it being a preset on any number of synths. Weird.

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