Your Music/Your Lyrics: Something A Little More Serious

quite doubtful I believe.

They have so many rules about where they get their songs

to be honest i'm always hoping someone might find one of my songs and ask for more. i've given up hoping simon cowel might discover me

Well Bill, that is one thing about Chordie keeping all the posts..... if it was posted here, there is a record and helps support claims if it ever should happen.

Both the Poetry and Songwriting sections were (I believe) good additions to the Forums and unique among the various similar sites out there in webland.  So keep the words and music coming!

I think you may have misread my post or mistaken my intentions, easybeat.

No problem, my friend. It's just hard for me to recognize it sometimes.

Copyright law is pretty clear.  You own all rights to works you create the instant you put them in a tangible form.   And one of the great things about Chordie is that it provides a place to record that.   Paper is a good option, too, as it never crashes. 

Stars, generally, aren't going to risk the heavy penalties that come along with infringement, although it's been known to happen.    More likely, they would get hold of you and say "I'll give you some money for the right to record this here song...."

Not exactly the copyright infringement being discussed but ............

When I was a kid I read a lot of science fiction novels.  In one of the books, the hero was killing time in a spaceport in some far-off galaxy so he went into a bar to get a drink.  In the corner of the bar a folk singer from planet earth was singing a song about the aftermath of the nuclear war that had happened years before.  The song was "She's my radiation baby, she's my teenage fallout queen". The lyrics to the song and the length of the lines and rhyme scheme made me imagine the song being sung in a 1950's ballad style.

Fast forward 20 years ..........

I was working in a nuclear plant on afternoon shift when we got the word there was an accident at the Three Mile Island facility. We knew the event would have a bad impact on our industry.  During lunch, while everyone was discussing what had happened, I remembered the "Radiation Baby" song from the book I'd read 20 years before and jotted down some lyric ideas about a leaking reactor which I later turned into a song I played around campfires and river banks for years.  Although I knew my lyrics were different I wanted to give proper credit for the idea, but was never able to remember the book title or author.

Fast forward another 20 years ............

I played the song one evening at an open mic venue.  One of the attendees often recorded the performances and put them on youtube.  Four years later someone saw the youtube video and commented that I had ripped off someone named George McKelvy.  I figured at long last I'd found out the name of the science fiction book's author.  I googled the name and found a 1960's video of a hippie character singing a song "She's my radiation baby, she's my teenage fallout queen".  I couldn't help but bust out laughing.  I swear I had never heard the song sung or seen it performed by Mr. McKelvy.  One thing I am sure of - we both must have read ther same science fiction books back in the 50's.

Sad thing is, I still don't know the book title or author.

DE