Essay Sample on The Verve: Bittersweet Symphony

Copyright law is a way of offering a defense to authors who produced the original work. The laws of the US provide protection. The works include drama, music, and many more. Slogans, individual words and short phrases cannot get protected by copyright law. Types of copyright law include citizens performing right, reproduction advantage, and mare more. The bittersweet symphony is an indie rock song. The vigor and the rolling stone have heard a dispute for over 20 years over the writing of the song. The energy headed by Richard Ashcroft won the battle over the rolling stone after several decades. The paper explains the background of the bittersweet symphony case, the decision by the courts. The article still discusses if a copyright violation occurred.

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Basic Concepts of Copyright Law

Offering protection to authors who produce original work is a procedure done by copyright law. Drama, music, artwork, and choreography are some of the works from the authors. These authors have the right to produce copies of their work. Other individuals can use the job but only with permission from the real author of the work.

Without permission, it will get termed as a copyright violation. The United States protects the original work, thus preventing plagiarism of the original work. One can get sued if plagiarism found without the real author's knowledge. If one is found guilty of copyright violation, one gets ordered to pay damages, which depend on the number of profits lost from the breach and the number of times the copyright gets violated.

Background of the Case

For over 22 years, the verve has not received any profits from the bittersweet symphony song after losing the authority to the rolling stone. The song finds itself in a legal conflict shortly after its release (Marinescu, Ana-Maria pp. 69). Even though Jagger and Keith from the rolling stone segment do not sound like the original bittersweets symphony song.

Ashcroft would still not take the royalties of the song. It results in Richard Ashcroft signing over his entitlements to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards till today. Keith and Mick signs over the rights back to Ashcroft. Richard says that Allen Klein, manager to the rolling stone is the one responsible for the handing over of the royalties back to him.

The dispute started again in 1997 when the verve asked for permission to specimen a small, staccato string scene from the musical type of the last period, produced in 1965 by Andrew Oldham Orchestra. The verve and the stones agreed to share the royalties fifty. But Klein manager of the stones asserts that energy took a more significant part of the song, voiding the whole deal.

A case on plagiarism then filed by the rolling stone company ABKCO records. The verve gives up their royalties of the song to the recording company ABKCO and the song credits given to Richard and Jagger. Ashcroft tells the BBC that the battle finished following consultations with Klein's son and Joyce Smith, the new director of the rolling stone. Ashcroft speaks once more on the bittersweet symphony lawsuit claiming that he would get some of the money he lost from the rock song in 1997.

The dispute is the longest in the history of rock music. After many years of struggling for the rights to his song, Ashcroft finally gains the authority to his song back, since the rolling stone company gives him willingly. He thanks them and says it is wise for the company. He claims that it has more taste than before. The case finally dropped.

An artwork, a written story, or choreography are some of the examples of intellectual works and are given protection by copyright (Toth et al. Np.). The artists of these works have the right to produce copies from their materials. It would be illegal for an individual to make copies of someone's work without acknowledging the owner like alien Klein does to Ashcroft's work. It would get termed as copyright violation, and one may get sued for this.

It would still be illegal to copy one's creative literature to set it as your own. It is known as plagiarism in the music industry. In the bittersweet symphony case, the rolling stone company commits copyright violation. It gets done by claiming the royalties of the song bittersweet symphony, which is written by Richard Ashcroft from the verve.

Allen Klein claims to own fifty percent of the song, but he is not the real author of the song. The rolling stone's version is not similar to that of Richard Ashcroft, but still, it does not give them the right to claim rights to the song. Allen Klein commits copies to write violations by suing Richard over his song since he took more shares. Copyright violations can get put under a lot of conditions. The legal proceedings can be complicated for both the prosecutor and the defense because the court has to look for possible elements to determine if there was a copyright violation.

In the case, it would be hard to determine the nature of the violation made because both the rolling stone and the verve had an agreement to share the royalties to the song halfway. But the energy, the original author, decides to take more of what they choose. It is complicated for both the prosecutor and the defense that is the vigor and the rolling stone to determine how much work from the song copied. In this case, the energy violates the agreement by taking more shares to the bittersweet symphony song than decided. It influences the value of the copyrighted song because, for years, no profit gained.

Copyright law is a way of offering a defense to authors who produced the original work. The rights to the song would have remained to Richard Ashcroft since he is the original author. Even though they had an agreement with Allie Klein, manager to the rolling stone company, It was not right for the credits to give to Richard and Jagger; instead, all the rights should have given to Richard Ashcroft.

The agreement made to provide ABKCO with rights to the song leaves Ashcroft with no control over his own made song. Bittersweet symphony becomes a massive hit in the rock songs world. Ashcroft should have received the fame but not the ABKCO. Jagger and Richards receive Grammy awards, but only Ashcroft should have won it since he is the really owner. The copyright law should have protected Ashcroft's work by all means.

Conclusion

Copyright law is a way of offering a defense to authors who produced the original work. The laws of the US offer protection. The vigor and the rolling stone have heard a dispute for over 20 years over the writing of the song. For more than 22 decades, the energy has not received any profits from the bittersweet symphony song after losing the authority to the rolling stone. It results in Richard Ashcroft signing over his entitlements to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards till today. The United States protects the original work, thus preventing plagiarism of the original work. One can get sued if plagiarism found without the real author's knowledge.

Copyright violations can get put under a lot of conditions. The legal proceedings can be complicated for both the prosecutor and the defense because the court has to look for possible elements to determine if there was a copyright violation. If one is found guilty of copyright violation, one gets ordered to pay damages, which depend on the number of profits lost from the breach and the number of times the copyright gets violated.

A case on plagiarism then filed by the rolling stone company ABKCO records. The verve gives up their royalties of the song to the recording company ABKCO and the song credits given to Richard and Jagger. In the bittersweet symphony case, the rolling stone company commits copyright violation. They do this by claiming the royalties of the song bittersweet symphony, written by Richard Ashcroft from the verve. The agreement made to provide ABKCO with rights to the song leaves Ashcroft with no control over his own made song. Bittersweet symphony becomes a massive hit in the rock songs world. Ashcroft should have received the fame but not the ABKCO.

References

Marinescu, Ana-Maria. "Cases of Plagiarism in Music." Rom. J. Intell. Prop. L. (2019): 61.Toth, Roland, and Tobias Dunlin. "Bittersweet Symphony: Nostalgia and Melancholia in Music Reception." (2020).