Metal Gear Solid theme stolen?

Visual Novel Community Off Topic
#1

Old news it seems, but something I just heard about.

I’m sure many people here have played Metal Gear Solid, and heard the trademark theme song from it. Tappy Iwase is the credited composer… but it seems he might have stolen it:

    [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTcNUoxCmHI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTcNUoxCmHI[/url]

Rather interesting… I wonder if the PS3 Metal Gear Solid BGM will be altered because of this.

EDIT
Note: the Japanese man in the Russian interview is Hideo - not Tappy himself: just wanted to clear that up. Hideo is obviously embarrassed, and shows authentic shock at not knowing about the similarities in the songs.

The “Russian original” is Winter Road by Georgy Vasilevich Sviridov.

Here’s a file someone made, comparing short segments of the two: I think it’s butchered enough, to not infringe… not that Tappy can say the same. :stuck_out_tongue:

http://www.elizar.com/ripoff.mp3

[ 09-29-2007, 01:01 AM: Message edited by: Nargrakhan ]

#2

Yea it seems real REAL close. I don’t think any legal action could be taken though since it’s too debatable, but then again, I’m not an expert on lawsuits, let alone lawsuits in the music industry.

Assuming it was stolen, I’m also questioning whether an old 1974 Russian song used for a game in a country like Japan would hold water in a court of law – they’re two completely different mediums. Because of that, you have issues like Russia vs. Japanese law and music vs. gaming rights. For example, I heard the term “bullet-time” is trademarked by the Wachowski brothers for The Matrix movie, yet the game title Max Payne trademarked the term “bullet-time” for PC & console games, so apparently there are loopholes in trademarks, depending on the source of the material.

Furthermore, isnt there a deadline to take legal action for things like this? The Metal Gear franchise used this song for years so legal action against Kojima’s team should have been carried out much earlier.

[ 09-29-2007, 04:32 AM: Message edited by: ReMeDy ]

#3

If its already past the 7 year limit…then the law can no longer do anything about it… Or is that 70…?
And this is probably applied only in the U.S.
Don’t know 'bout other countries…

#4

Here’s an interesting footnote:

Since the interview, Tappy has not been involved with Hideo anymore… The soundtracks for the PSP Metal Gears were composed by a Nobuko Toda… the upcoming PS3 title is going to be composed by Nobuko Toda with Harry Gregson-Williams.

#5