Glee Controversy: Allegedly stealing arrangements of songs

This is a tricky area, since it's technically a cover song, but GLEE has now lifted very specific arrangements of those songs from a few artists, without crediting them at minimum for the arrangement. Ryan Murphy is a boil on the ass of humanity.

http%3A//www.wired.com/underwire/2013/01/jonathan-coulton-glee-song/

It's a song about ass. Who cares?
Phillip Phillips did it the entire run of American Idol. Can we sue him too?
[quote]Ryan Murphy is a boil on the ass of humanity What an idiotic thing to say. Regardless of what you might think of him, he's pushed numerous gay characters onto television. Plus, AHS was fantastic. People who complain about people like Ryan Murphy clearly don't know who the real enemies out there are.
Not a big deal
There is no controversy they are within the legal limits of copyright law. It would be a courtesy to do so but is not necessary.
The issue of credit is kind of irrelevant. Glee has no onscreen credits for any of the music they use, whether it be the original performers or the songwriters. TV shows just don't have music credits, not even music oriented ones like Glee or American Idol. And musical arrangements are not copyrighted. The only permission they need is the songwriter's. Certainly they could give the performer a courtesy call and get their blessing, but ultimately, they don't have to, so they don't.
WTF is an arrangement?
R3, I would love to know what else you deem "fantastic". Must be quite a list.
Go fuck yourself, R8. Perhaps you'd like to go back where gay people weren't on TV at all?
Lifting muscial arrangements is an old practice. Usually though, the notes are reversed and disguised. See also: The Beatles, Beethoven, Motown
Someone please explain what an arrangement is.
Not%20a%20theater%20queen
R11
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrangement_(music)
The issue is that the original "Baby Got Back" is a rap song with no actual melody as part of it's original composition. There have been a whole series of people who have actually set the lyric to music (my favorite is a Gilbert and Sullivan-style setting) However, because the original song is considered complete in itself, any setting of the melody is considered an arrangement, and not protected by copyright law. When you go to a Karaoke club, and you see that some songs have multiple versions available based on the performers who have covered them... the karaoke company didn't have to pay the arrangers in order to duplicate their work, just the songwriter's musical publishers. Hopefully, the Glee version and the publicity will help the artist who originated that cover version. And although, the folks behind Glee aren't legally required to credit the cover version they copied, it would be nice if they did, but they wouldn't be legally obligated to pay any monies.
The guy involved didn't want money. The issue is they stole every bit of arrangement he did and gave him no credit at all. He did create the arrangement.
Ugh intellectual property theft drama sucks, that is why so many corporate steamroller machines routineley get away with it: simply, they anticipate it.
Most of Glee's covers are better than the original and sell more.
[quote]it's technically a cover song No, it's not "technically" a cover song - it IS a cover song. Now the guy who copied someone's song is crying "OMG, someone copied my copy! I'm a victim!"
GLEE just rips off left and right and doesn't care. They also totally ripped off the original video choreography to the Scissor Sisters "Kiki" number when they did it with SJP - and the choreographer of the original video got no credit on GLEE either...
http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/12-2012/glees-kiki-drama-why-would-fox-deny-choreographers_63859.html
Turkey%20Lurkey%20Time
It was a lousy cover of a ridiculous rap song about as someone noted, ass. Now Coulton has re released his bad cover version on itunes and saying the proceeds will go to VH1 charity. Between this and his stories in Wired and Forbes he seems to be capitalizing quite nicely playing the victim. US copyright laws are a mess right now and have not kept up with the times at all but they mainly protect original work. Coulton's work is derivative and if he wanted it protected he should have covered all his bases. Now he's whining after the fact because a popular show used it.
Coulton is actually a very popular modern songwriter with a huge fanbase, and that version of BGB is quite good, which is why Glee copied it note for note. You should familiarize yourself with his work before you rush to judge him. I'm surprised more people here haven't heard of him; maybe this place is just eldergays and fraus now after all.
I love the "Glee" version of Kiki although Jake does rock it on the parts not included in "Glee". The shows version has 200,000 more hits than the Sister's original.