Cover versions are one thing, plagiarism is a whole different kettle of fish. Or in this case kettle of no fish – a classic silly season article which actually has a potentially important idea at the heart of it. Copyright exists for the reason of protection of the individual artist. The idea is that it makes clear who is the author, the artist of a work – though in a capitalist world it is more grittily linked with the business of making money out of your art. Unfortunately copyright does not allow for someone independently coming up with an idea, and is quite happy to squash even slight bits of sampling. So why John Cage has never sued anyone for having bits of silence – silence that he wrote – between their tracks has always been a mystery to me.
Legal battle between Mike Batt and John Cage over silence. Worth it for the two different performances of their respective pieces and Mike Batt’s quick invention of the not very inspired Chris Cage to try and wangle out of it.