[ Closed ] anamanaguchi ripoff in disney commercial. (Page 4 of 10)

thank god you warned us about that, i assumed it was a safe, friendly link. i was so wrong though, cheers!

best

Same here. As it is undeniably true that this piece has been, let's say, "heavily inspired" on Anamanaguchi's track, there is absolutely no grounds for legal action, at all.

But the cheaptoon sk3n3 has to get up in hemorrhoidal pain as usual.
Timberland plain ripped off a tune, that's totally different.

Last edited by akira^8GB (Sep 18, 2012 3:41 pm)

Normally I don't get too wrapped up in things like this, but as I said before, lazy/irresponsible songwriting and/or outright theft drives me freaking crazy. It all comes down to how much time/money/resources/etc. the band and its management really does have to fight this. Now I know I also said before something like "there's no argument that they're not the same" or "they're pretty much exactly the same" and all right, maybe that is an exaggeration. As a whole, once you really get into the song after the first few measures, the Disney song is not a carbon copy, no. All that being said, I think the parts that are too close for comfort are absolutely worth getting upset over. I would say some of the subtle production/composition choices are just way too sophisticated to deserve to be considered "original." After about the first five seconds or so, yes, the song is just pretty much heavily inspired -- but those five seconds are so closely derivative that, if it were my music, I'd be beyond livid. Go back and listen to those first few measures with headphones. The way the melody comes in after the second beat, the rhythm of that pattern, the way the harmony comes in in the 2nd measure, the way that harmony is panned.. It's THE SAME in both. I think both songs even modulate to the same relative chord after that intro (yes, they are each in a different key, but you can't just play "Happy Birthday" in a different key and not have to pay to use it in your movie). I don't know if judges/lawyers care about those kinds of technical similarities but that's a lot more than "It FEELS like an Anamanaguchi song" or "They stole our chord progression." If it were me, I could not just let this go.

Of course there are many, many examples of this happening all the time, and many examples (perhaps even the majority) of people getting away with it. But that doesn't make it OK, and that shouldn't mean someone should just throw in the towel. Sorry if that sounds idealistic, but I think when someone is getting paid to write music, the audience deserves hard, original efforts. I agree that Anamanaguchi should be very careful before they do anything -- as I said, it all comes down to how much money and resources they have for this, and none of us can tell them how to proceed. Maybe they'll decide to do nothing. But off the top of my head I can think of a few examples of someone saying "Hey, that sounds like my song!" and either winning or coming to some kind of settlement (The Flaming Lips' "Fight Test" and Cat Stevens' "Father and Son," the theme from "Ghostbusters" and Huey Lewis's "I Want a New Drug," that stupid Verve song that ripped off the Rolling Stones or whatever)... So good luck to them with whatever they decide to do.