Originally posted here by nihil
Hi Doc~,

Not sure how things are over with you, but here, there are two basic aspects of copyright:

1. Intellectual Copyright (Writer of Song/music)
2. Mechanical Copyright (The performance/recording)

You may find that you have the same. The actual performance/album is covered by #2

To violate #1 you would need to perform a "cover version" or pinch some of the lines/riffs for your own composition.

You will probably find that #2 is much shorter than #1

I only ever did a two week copyright course many years ago, but it is a pretty complex subject because of the various parties and interests that could be involved. Also the course was aimed at accounting for copyright and royalties rather than infringements. Obviously you can "reverse engineer" the logic on the grounds that if you have to pay someone then it isn't in the public domain?
There's been a big stink over here for awhile about intellectual property. I believe that is what you may be referring to. I've never, ever, in my entire life even looked at the copyright law.