There are many cases where a composer will be hired to write some music–TV shows, movies, commercials, etc. If the composer creates a derivative work from something he himself did for an an earlier client, could that client sue?
For example, say a composer is hired to write the score for a movie called “Space Wars”. Later, he’s hired to do the score for “Superguy”. For whatever reason, the music in “Superguy” is so similar to “Space Wars” that audiences immediately make the association between the two movies. Could the producers of “Space Wars” sue the composer for copying work that they paid for?
John Fogerty was sued over an issue like this. He felt that his contract with his original record company, Fantasy Records, was unfair and was taking too much royalties. He signed a new contract with Warner but Fantasy still held the rights to his early songs.
In 1985 Fogerty released Centerfield (on the Warner label) which including the hit song “The Old Man Down the Road”. Fantasy then sued Fogerty claiming that he had plagiarized himself. They argued that “The Old Man Down the Road” was based on Fogerty’s earlier song “Run Through the Jungle” and that because they owned the rights to the earlier song, they should also receive royalties from the new song.
Fogerty won the lawsuit but the decision was based on the two songs being sufficiently distinct rather than the question of whether an artist can plagiarize himself.
It would depend on the contract (and personal relationship) between the composer and the producers of “Space Wars.”
It would also depend on how prominent it is: if the main title themes are the same, then there’s trouble. If the composer uses a bit of incidental music he composed for the first film as incidental music for the second, it’s not worth anyone’s bother.
Right, if the original contract assigns all copyright rights to the Space Wars producers, then they own the copyright, and can pursue anyone copying it. The fact that Juan Jillians wrote both is then irrelevant, because he no longer owns the original work. If, on the other hand, the original contract just gives the Space Wars producers nonexclusive license to use the work, then the composer retains ownership, and can copy it (or voluntarily allow others to copy it) as much as he likes.
We once hired a freelance art studio to do some concept art for a video game. Six months later, another developer released some promo images for a different game that looked suspiciously like our concepts. A little sleuthing revealed they had come from the same freelancers. They’d taken our images and done paintovers to create the images for the other company. We didn’t have to sue them. They apologized profusely and comped us a bunch of work. But we easily could have sued. The original work was done under a contract that assigned all rights to us.
CAN he be sued? Probably, depending on whether the composer retains rights to hsi work or signs them away.
Regardless, some composers are shameless recyclers. Jim Steinman comes to mind.
First, he wrote a rock opera based on Roman Polanski’s horror-comedy The Fearless Vampire Killers. The show-stopper song from that musical was “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” He couldn’t get financing for that musical, so…
He recyled "Total Eclipse of the Heart"and used its melody as the instrumental theme music to a movie he wrote the score for: A Small Circle of Friends.
He changed he lyrics around (no vampire allusions) and it became a hit single for Bonnie Tyler.
As long as he retained all the rights, he didn’t do anything illegal.
That’s pretty odd, considering it almost sounded to me that “The Old Man Down the Road” was written with “I dare you to sue me” in mind. It sounds so much a like “Run through the Jungle” compared to lawsuits that are settled or won on other cases.
That song, plus two others from “Centerfield,” “Mr. Greed” and “Zanz Kant Danz,” all seemed to be written as big "F-you"s towards Saul Zaenz. In fact, both the title and lyrics of “Zanz Kant Danz” had to be altered to “Vanz Kant Danz.” Pressings of the album with “Zanz Kant Danz” must be somewhat valuable. In fact, there’s a sealed copy of it on eBay with a Buy it Now price of $49.99, but of course, that’s only if someone’s willing to buy it for that much.
I had the original cassette with “Zanz Can’t Dance.” It was (literally!) a song about a pig (yes, an actual hog/swine/boar/whatever) named Zanz who steals people’s money.
I know absolutely nothing about the morals or the business practices of Saul Zaenz. Maybe he was a liar and a thief who ripped off John Fogerty. Maybe he was a wonderful man and Fogerty was slandering him. I have no way of knowing.
But if I were Saul Zaenz and I’d heard myself being called a thieving pig, I’d have been angry enough to make Fogerty’s life miserable with a lawsuit or two.
For what it’s worth, Fogerty’s brother Tom regarded Zaenz as a great guy and as a friend. That’s just one of the reasons John hated his brother, and wouldn’t reconcile with Tom even when he was dying of AIDS.
John Fogerty is a genuine musical genius, but boy, he can hold grudges.