NFL spots on the Superbowl

[Zacara]

The NFL had "Forever" spots on the Superbowl. Jim Brown was the narrator on Forever Fridays. As the music in question faded out he started to speak. The question is are these two pieces of music so similar as to be a rip off. The first one was from a CD released in the year 2000.

Grated one is slightly slower than the other but the notes and voicing seems to be the same. There is a single Guitar not that punches threw on the one from the CD....Opinions please

Thanks

[pboss]

If you are able to post two links, one to the superbowl track and one to the track you're comparing it to, I would be really curious to listen and compare. I could go on a goose chase and track 'em down, but I have a salad to eat.

[Zacara]

Patty

Thanks for your ear

I posted them on Sound Cloud

This was on during Superbowl

https://soundcloud.com/jzacara/soup-bowl-commerical

This is from a CD released in 2000

https://soundcloud.com/jzacara/amj-1

What is your opinion? Is it a rip off?

[pboss]

Thanks for posting the links. It's an interesting question. What I hear is that your two samples are in the same key, using the same three triad chords of F∆, G∆, a-. If you were to try to pin a melody on it, it could be defined as the arpeggiation of these triads, or the top line of three notes in succession (we could drill down for each example). But the Super Bowl example is a full arpeggiation and the other example doesn't use the same notes, it uses the 1 and the 3 of the scale of each chord for the 'melody'. So, technically, the melody is not copied, even though they're similar. Both pieces of music to me seem very generic as well.

In other words, we might hear that same arpeggation in a ton of songs, and we might find the notes f, g, a as a three note ( each a half-note) melody. You cannot copyright scales, chords, chord progressions, keys, or tempos. In my humble non-lawyer opinion, your example case wouldn't be considered copyright infringement because it's not only not a copy of the melody, but also because of the generic nature of the arpeggiated melody and/or the three-note ascending melody. It's just my opinion and I could be wrong.

In conclusion, it's extremely similar to the other, but it's also so generic, it's like saying that two scales are in the same key and use the same notes at a similar tempo and therefore, is copyright infringement. And in this case, the 'melody' is not being copied exactly. (The tempos are a little different, but that is irrelevant I think). I would be interested others' opinions.

I first thought they were more similar, and then edited this post based on listening a second time, where I realized the melodic material was indeed slightly different.

[Russell Landwehr]

Another thing that needs to be taken into consideration when determining if something is a "rip-off" is this: Did the creator/writer of the 2nd work have access to, and actually hear the 1st work, before creating the 2nd?

rl

[andygabrys]

not close enough in my opinion.

assume that the NFL creator did have access to your music as a temp track:

tempo is different.
instrumentation is different.

most importantly the melody (if you believe the melody to be the top notes of the chords)

in your tune: a, f, a, f, b, g, b, g, c, a, c, a

NFL tune: a, c, f, a, b, d, g, b, c, e, a, c

not the same.


Now assume as Russell said that the NFL spot composer had never heard your piece?

F, G, Amin or IV, V, VI- or 4, 5, 6- if you like numbers is one of the most common chord progressions out there.....

just my 2 cents.

[Zacara]

Thank you all for listening to this music and your take on the whole affair.

It was very informative.