Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York
My question on copyright law
Our group re-recorded a version of the Band's song (S). Mechanical royalties were paid to the Band's publisher upon the release of the song by our group. Our group's version of the S is different from the original to the extent that the original was recorded with the fiddle, and was mainly a ''country song.'' However, the re-recorded version was recorded with a heavy bass guitar, few notes, and melodies were changed/added by our group to make it confirm it to our style. Essentially, our group transformed the song from a ''country'' song to a ''rock'' song.
Our group was contacted by a Third Party (TP), who wished to use our group's version of the S for a project. TP discovered that our group did not have the authorization to make a ''derivative work'' of the S from the Band and did not pursue it further. However, TP did get someone else to record a version of the S which was remarkably similar to our group�s version of the S and used it for their project. There are sufficient similarities between the two versions (between our group's version and TP's version of the S) for it to be considered a copying. I want to know if our group has a claim against the TP for copying our groups� version of the S
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: My question on copyright law
Your answer is a resounding MAYBE. You need to speak with a copyright attorney to determine your rights in this situation. Feel free to give my office a call to set up a free half-hour phone appointment.
THE INFORMATION PRESENTED HERE IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND IS NOT INTENDED, NOR SHOULD IT BE CONSTRUED, AS LEGAL ADVICE. THIS POSTING DOES NOT CREATE ANY ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN US. FOR SPECIFIC ADVICE ABOUT YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION, CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY.
Re: My question on copyright law
You pose a question of fact -- will a judge find in your favor. It's of course impossible to know. HOWEVER -- you can pursue a claim against the TP and also the "someone else" they got to record it. You may be dismissed as against at least one of them, perhaps both. But you can't know until the case is brought. In the interim, you can do an analysis of the similarities and get some guidance from past cases in this regard. Again, this won't be a guarantee of success or defeat but will give you some guidance.
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