How Far Does A Person Go Untill They Can Be Sued For Copyright Infringement?

Posted by Copyright Law on July 9th, 2009 at 04:27pm

Like how far? What if you steal a riff? A melody? A chord progression? Untill it is called copying or copyright infringement?

1 Comment for How Far Does A Person Go Untill They Can Be Sued For Copyright Infringement?

1. whitefan | July 9th, 2009 at 8:29 pm

It’s not a matter of how much of someone else’s work you use. It’s a matter of what purpose it is being used. The following is an excerpt from the Copyright Office website:
“Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports. There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentage of a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances.”