Sephirot Theme ( Phase 2 ) sound familiar?

[KrenianKandos]

So. This made me curious so I sat down and listened to it.

First thing is first: I didn't think Powerman 5000 until someone actually talked about it. So I sat and played both. Short of the riff, there's maybe a feel of a homage to the song, and that the song has taken some liberties by using somewhat the same structure of the song, but wow, there's no infringement here. They don't sound alike at all.

You want a song that could have caused you problems if you're S-E? Mog. That's incredibly close to Tim Burton's "This is Hallowe'en" from A Nightmare Before Christmas. Anyone who says that it's a change of the FF5 music is basing it off of one 10 second part of that song and saying "SEE! 8 BIT = THIS SONG! NOT COPYRIGHT!"

...put both together. At the same time. And you will hear the songs be incredibly and eerily similar. THAT is a far better candidate for copyright infringement.

This is, in my view, a complete non issue. There's enough difference that it wouldn't trigger. And I used to listen to Powerman 5000 back in the day. When hearing Sephirot, I never even once thought of Powerman 5000. Mog? I literally yelled out "THIS IS HALLOWE'EN, THIS IS HALLOWE'EN!" when doing the boss the first time.

On that note, I'm indifferent to this song. I preferred Ravana.

[Airget]

Ya honestly, just youtube search "Industrial rock" and you'll notice there are a lot of riffs that sound familar to one another, even the whole steady drum beat in some song.

[Vaiur]

Our tank immediately said "Wow this is Powerman 5000", but am I the only one who immediately thought "Huh, devil may cry. Cool" ?

[Derceto]

This being an SE fan base, I can expect the favouritism to side with SE of course. This is a straight rip off, no matter what anybody in any position at SE says. The chances of a song being this similar by random chance are galactic to say the least. SE should get lawyers stuffed up their rear like they're so fond of doing to fan projects. What a joke.

[Alberel]

This being an SE fan base, I can expect the favouritism to side with SE of course. This is a straight rip off, no matter what anybody in any position at SE says. The chances of a song being this similar by random chance are galactic to say the least. SE should get lawyers stuffed up their rear like they're so fond of doing to fan projects. What a joke.

Care to actually highlight all the component parts of the song that 'rip off' When Worlds Collide? By my listening the only things that sound anything like it are the chord progression in the first 20 seconds and the style of the vocals. That is not enough to claim anyone copied anything. The odds of TWO components of a song being similar to another are not 'galactic' at all. If anything the song actually sounds more like Rammstein in its later parts.

[Aldebaran92]

I didn't even know the Powerman 5000 song, so I had to listen to it (several times) in order to confirm what people have said here and...honestly, I find it hilarious that people are calling the Sephirot theme a rip-off, and that Facebook post about "unimaginative theft" made it even more so. The beginnings are slightly similar, but other than that...come on. Nothing against Powerman 5000, don't even know who they are, but there are worse things to get upset about than some similarity. As a friend put it: music is not infinite, and at one point or another, some songs are gonna sound similar. Deal with it.

[Hyrist]

This being an SE fan base, I can expect the favouritism to side with SE of course. This is a straight rip off, no matter what anybody in any position at SE says. The chances of a song being this similar by random chance are galactic to say the least. SE should get lawyers stuffed up their rear like they're so fond of doing to fan projects. What a joke.

You are aware that Powerman 5000 is catching negative traction on their own facebook, right? Being a fan of one does not exclude you from being a fan of the other, no matter what some random person on a forum says.

Intentionally ostracizing yourself from popular opinion does not, by default, make yours more viable.

[CGMidlander]

This being an SE fan base, I can expect the favouritism to side with SE of course. This is a straight rip off, no matter what anybody in any position at SE says. The chances of a song being this similar by random chance are galactic to say the least. SE should get lawyers stuffed up their rear like they're so fond of doing to fan projects. What a joke.

It sounds like you haven't listened to enough music if you really think that. lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92JudNqbPYU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TCZSFdo-QY

[Velhart]

The songs definitely sound similar and cannot blame people for accusing it as such. Even Yoshi-P coming out and saying it is just a coincidence does mean they take the issue seriously. I don't think Soken intentionally made the music sound similar and believe they hadn't heard of them. I do think however they will likely be careful on what they take inspiration from. Its hard however since its impossible to make something sound completely original. Everything is inspired by something and down the road we may have something like this once again.

I don't believe Soken is the type to blatantly rip off someone else's work and have it as his own. And I am sure Powerman 5000 is just trying to get some attention since they have not be relevant for a long time. Not bad mind you, just not relevant.

Just remember everyone, Soken has been making music for this game for years now and this is the first time he has come into question like this, so I would definitely give him and his team the benefit of the doubt on this one. If his tracks down the line sound very similar to another track like this, then maybe he can come into question. For now I will just say to keep up the good work, he is doing an incredible job and should be recognized for such. Not this.

[heiligeharmonie]

I don't think in the history of accusations like this the line "we weren't aware of your song" has ever changed someone's mind from the course of action they want to take against it.

I don't even think being able to prove that (not that you could) would change how a lawsuit would turn out.

Actually, "I never heard that song before, I came up with this on my own," is a defense that is used in copyright courts. It then comes down to credibility of the defendant, and the defendant's accessibility to the song will be examined. In this case, as some people have already pointed out, When Worlds Collide hasn't been relevant in almost 2 decades, and given Sokken's Japanese nationality and residence, it's not a stretch to think that he might be telling the truth.

The question of how common certain chord progressions and arrangements are in a given genre is also key there, and again, others have already expressed that, to them, it sounds like many other industrial song. And let's not even get into performance vs. actual composition. All in all, copyright cases are messy and oftentimes, really, REALLY objective. They're either hard as hell to prove or hard as hell to disprove. In this particular case, I doubt it would go to any kind of trial. If the band/record company does anything more than blow hot air on social media (which alone will get them TONS of attention), the whole thing will probably get settled out of court, because it's just cheaper and less complicated that way.