German Lawyer claims Wizball isn't music...

[Chris Abbott]

(about the bit of Wizball subtune 9 "Borrowed" by Console for 14 Zero Zero):


"Copyright Protection of the piece "Wizball (bonus level)"
as you have pointed out "this is different from a normal music dispute since the area of music concerned was ignored by the ... legal professionals until this millennium". this fact turns out to be quite important in this dispute. in fact after having reviewed the sound file of "Wizball (bonus level)" we have determined that this sound piece is in fact not a copyrighted musical composition (though from an artist's point of view one may dislike this result):

according to german and british copyright legislation a musical composition is an original musical work created by a human being by exercising a certain amount of skill or creativity in the collection of musical notes which makes the composition a protectable product of the composer's mind. though we are sure that many of Mr. Galway's other works do fullfill these requirements, "Wizball (bonus level)" certainly does not:

1st: the piece does neither have a melody nor any other sequence of notes that can be set down in permanent written form (sheet music). of course the actual existance of sheet music is not mandatory but any musical composition must at least be suitable to be written down. instead "Wizball (bonus level)" is a seqence of atonal sounds which cannot be reproduced with any musical instrument.

2nd: the sequence is obviously not a product of a human being's creativity but the result of a technical process. the sequence reproduces a sinus curve modulation created by a machine. "

Yeah, right pal. Chew on the MIDI ringtone and the sheet music and eat your f*cking patronising words.

Honestly, these people...

Chris

[Chris Abbott]

Another quote:

"it only serves as an introduction to the composition. it actually does not have any effect at all on the following melody and lyrics. the song will surely be remembered for its melody. the influence of the sound on the work can be neglected as the piece does not appear anywhere in the actual work. in fact the piece is not part of the composition at all because it is neither part of its melody, nor its lyrics.

it is correct that Console's appeal as a recording artist is based on electronic sounds. but he might as well have used any other "electronic way-out-sound" for the opening of the recording of "14 Zero Zero" without losing any of the song's appeal."

Yeah, right.

Chris

[tas]

I can only say that was comical reading...

He's talking about a machine producing notes that an instrument can't do!!!

Then what on earth is a bloody "Synthesiser"? helllllooooo? it's a machine!



The piece does not have any melody?!?!

Cool, we can all rip off 90% of the songs created today then! Duh!


It's not part of a humans creativity?

So the machine just did it by itself did it? dimwit!


i bet your blood is boiling from that nonsense chris.

[Chris Abbott]

You're not wrong. He claims the entire piece is a sine wave sound effect.
What a muppet. And he talks as if he's the world's expert... I'll show him...

"We have determined", "Obviously"...

Luckily the polyphonic ringtone puts paid to that nonsense: its existence as a MIDI file defines it as music, since MIDI is not capable of sound effects. Well, OK, obviously we know it is with pitchbends, but still...

Chris

[DHS]

Those guiys are full of s*ite. period.

In dept, where they did use the sid?

[Waz]

(about the bit of Wizball subtune 9 "Borrowed" by Console for 14 Zero Zero):

You mean subtune 2, surely?

Nonetheless, I feel your pain though. Show em Chris!

Anyone who has listened to the Console track (or even happens to own the CD, like I do) knows that the tune is actually _sampled_ and is clearly lifting the sample from the SID without the express permission of the copyright holder and the composer (ie: Chris and Martin). That alone should determine it as copyright theft.

[xo]

This is why lawyers should be outlawed.

[CraigG]

So, Chris: are you going to fight this idiot?

[Chris Abbott]

So, Chris: are you going to fight this idiot?

Already doing so. This has actually been a two year battle.

Chris

[Chris Abbott]

Those guiys are full of s*ite. period.

In dept, where they did use the sid?

First five seconds of the tune.

Chris

[Monty]

when i first listened to 14 zero zero (without knowing at that time, that it contains sid-material), i IMMEDIATELY thought "cool, galway!".

i think that clearly proves that it's after all "a work of a certain amount of skill and creativity", if i can assign it to a specific musician.
(of course, i didn't know right away that it's from wizball, but found out quickly.)

what a shit-text! funny though.

[1337]

If a tune has no melody, that means that it's playing one or more individual notes non-stop throughout the piece of music...

Has he ANY idea how ridiculous that sounds? People like this occasionally remind us how stupid a supposedly educated person can become.

1337

[Chris Abbott]

> People like this occasionally remind us how stupid a
> supposedly educated person can become.

I think he's out of his depth, this lawyer. He's so used to being the "expert", he hasn't realised that _we_ are the experts.

Also, remember he can't admit weakness: it would damage his relationship with his client. All he can do is play the weak hand he has and try to mitigate the damage to his client. He's not going to come out and say "Oh, sorry sorry sorry, we beg your forgiveness". In fact, in the first letter I got he was questioning whether Wizball really existed, and claimed his client had never heard of Martin Galway or Wizball. Then in the next letter, he said that they'd got a previous email from me which they felt they didn't need to do anything about. So they're really digging themselves a grave here.

Poor little lawyer... he was thinking "Oh, I'm so clever, I've managed to avoid a big bill for my clients". And then we send the sheet music. I wonder if he'll try denial next, or the "insulting offer" without liability. Again, from a business point of view, they've got to try the insulting offer first, just in case I'm stupid enough to go for it. And it's in their interests to be as bloody minded as possible as long as they don't drive the matter into the court system. It's very cynical, and nowhere is there any concern for the artist. It sums up everything that's wrong with both the legal system and the music industry.


Whichever way, this one will run and run.

Chris

[CraigG]

The sheet music thing is clearly bollocks anyway—after all, Cage's estate has managed to sue several people for "silent" tracks on their CDs. By this lawyer's definition, you would be able to legally sample ANYTHING from a TV show or CD that was atmosphere or "not skilfully composed" and get away with it. Again, lawsuits have proven that this is clearly not the case. It appears, as Chris says, that the lawyer doesn't have a leg to stand on.

[Chris Abbott]

The sheet music thing is clearly bollocks anyway—after all, Cage's estate has managed to sue several people for "silent" tracks on their CDs. By this lawyer's definition, you would be able to legally sample ANYTHING from a TV show or CD that was atmosphere or "not skilfully composed" and get away with it. Again, lawsuits have proven that this is clearly not the case. It appears, as Chris says, that the lawyer doesn't have a leg to stand on.

I did point out the existence of phonographic rights, and that this lawyer appeared to have forgotten about them. His argument was essentially that anything that didn't have mechanical rights in it was usable.

He's not a very good lawyer is he?

Anyway, the next argument in line is the point that there's more technological and musical brilliance in that 5 second snippet than there is in the whole of Console's entire musical output, and so Console was trying to steal credibility for genius to bolster his otherwise mundane output.

They, of course, contend that Mr Galway is a nobody and that his work was only given meaning when used by Mr Console's genius (and that the work was strong enough to be a hit without the intro).

The truth, of course, is somewhere in between. But I'm damned if I'm going to let them short-change Martin like that.

Chris