# Using a tiny fraction of another song - and paying royalties

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-tiny-fraction-of-another-song-and-paying-royalties/641380>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 18, 2012, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-tiny-fraction-of-another-song-and-paying-royalties/641380 "2012-11-18T05:45:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-tiny-fraction-of-another-song-and-paying-royalties/641380/21 "2012-11-20T05:21:10Z")

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> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> How do you prove you never had access to something that was written before your piece?

Because its not your burden to prove it. It’s the plaintiff’s burden to show you did have access. And no court is going to accept that simply because some time in your life you once stood next to a computer that you accessed any and every particular recording as a matter of law. It’s still the plaintiff’s burden to show you copied. There can be a balance tilted for a work that’s do widely known that its not believable that a songwriter had never heard it, but not every work that has ever been on iTunes is going to meet that standard and if you can dhow through a forensic analysis of your computer and iTunes account that X obscure work has never been played on it that’s gravy

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**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-tiny-fraction-of-another-song-and-paying-royalties/641380/22 "2012-11-20T05:41:25Z")

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Is possession of a song considered proof of listening to it?

(Just curious. Sometimes in the throes of consumerist passion, I buy entire albums when I only want a few songs. If I ever become a musical star, I want to know if I should delete the ones I never listened to.)

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**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-tiny-fraction-of-another-song-and-paying-royalties/641380/23 "2012-11-20T05:44:20Z")

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> [@KellyCriterion](#):
>
> …No court in the world would convict you because a poultry two seconds of your song kind of sounds like another two seconds from an obscure song from 1967.

Actually, 'Chicken Shack’s “I’d Rather Go Blind” came out in 1969.

[Sorry… I just couldn’t resist that one]🙂

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