Simple Blues Riff And Copyright

[Damion Dreher]

If I wanted to use the overused blues riff made famous by the likes of Muddy Waters on Hoochie Coochie man, Bad to the Bone, and plenty others.  Is using this copyright infringment? It is used in blues from long ago and not sure what the law is on this.  I want to take this and put all new music behind it but still have this style.  The start and stop slow style.  Any information would be helpful.

[Damion Dreher]

Yeah I ran across this as well but how can someone copyright a melody? I mean the basic dah da da da song structure is used all over in blues.  its the basics of lots of songs.

[john]

Yeah I ran across this as well but how can someone copyright a melody? I mean the basic dah da da da song structure is used all over in blues.  its the basics of lots of songs.

The two primary components of a song that are copyrighted as "the song" are the lyrics and the melody (or melodies) just because everyone and their dog saw fit to recycle these melodies in their own tune only speaks of how fundamental they were. It is no different yo you writing a song now and me using your melody. Even if I use the melody in 20, 30, 40 or 50 years, it is still your melody.

[MikeRobinson]

This is definitely a situation where I would buy the expertise of a qualified entertainment-law attorney.  Have him or her review your song, do due-diligence that you must pay for, and create a statement of opinion on company letterhead.  (And if he or she says that the song might be an infringement, "it's dead, Jim."  Go write something else.)

 

You can, of course, expect to pay several hundred dollars for this worthy service.  But, since you are contemplating a commercial venture, "attorney's fees" are deductible expenses anyhow.  And, since you are contemplating a commercial venture, you really don't have an option anyhow.  It's exactly like doing a title-search before buying a piece of land.  When you go to try to sell your work, their lawyers will perform such a search.  But, before engaging their lawyers, they're going to want to see something from yours.  The potential for legal liability is (by design) extreme, and this is everyone's business.