Burt Bacharach on derivation in copyright law

The BBC posted text concerning comments made by Burt Bacharach on copyright law:

Bacharach, a multiple Grammy and Oscar winner is famed for such classics as I Say A Little Prayer and Close to You, said it was "a delicate matter".

"It's not a perfect science," he told the BBC's Colin Paterson.

"I think what needs to be done is there has to be maybe three, four outstanding experts, musicologists, who can be trusted, who can differentiate and say 'that's derivative, that's not derivative'."

Bacharach explained that with a limited number of notes, some songs were bound to be similar.
"It's one octave you've got to play with. Some songs sound like others. Things are messy enough in the world of pop music and records and downloads, free music and things like that."



link: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40813002

In thinking about derivative work, one also must consider the concept of transformative.