Hypothetically

[RABid]

Dave Bryce markets a Acid loop CD containing rhythms, bass, pads and some very nice lead lines. He copy writes the CD to prevent people from ripping him off by selling copies on eBay.

 

Craig Anderton uses one of the nice lead lines to create a jingle for General Motor's next national advertising campaign.

 

Kill Bill 14 hits the theaters around the same time featuring a title tune by Gus Lozada. The tune is destined to be the next big instrumental. Throughout the tune Gus uses the same Acid loop as Craig for the main theme.

 

Gus initially gets composer royalties for the title theme from Kill Bill 14. A layer convinces Dave that he should sue Gus and gain composer rights to the song seeing as he did write the melody used as the main theme. Gus' layers decide that since the GM campaign uses the same melody as the title track of Kill Bill 13, Gus should be getting royalties from the campaign.

 

Seeing an opportunity to make some easy money, the famous trance producers Jeff and Dan use the same loop from the Acid CD for a feature song on their latest remix release. The song becomes a rage in all the clubs across Europe. As far as Jeff and Dan are concerned they get to use a major movie theme on their latest CD and only have to pay Dave $40 for a copy of his Acid CD.

 

So who owns the rights to the melody that is suddenly a national hit?

 

Robert

[Intheether]

As amazingly strange as it sounds, if the loops are sold as "royalty free" - you don't ever need permission to use them in any way shape or form. Royalties go to the composers, not the loop originator.