A copyright claim doesn't mean you've copied anything. I can submit a DMCA takedown for any video on youtube by filling out a form [0] and it's fairly likely the video will be pulled.

[0] https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2807622?hl=en-GB

That's my point. And if your plaintiff is a billion dollar company and your resources are limited, that's pretty scarry if you're in the right.

Japanese Cowboy by Ween. Listen to the song in it's entirety before visiting the wiki page :)

https://youtu.be/-WJ7NMQyK2E

https://www.ween.wiki/wiki/Japanese_Cowboy

Seems pretty easy to identify the song it's based on to me (and the original composer even threatened to sue). The rhythm's also pretty similar though.

It's an interesting case though because they are clearly different songs. I listened to that song for many years and never once made the connection to the other one until I heard the live version played with the special ending.

take a popular song, change the rhythm and timing and maybe change the middle bridge part and change all the lyrics to be something you wrote yourself and wait if you get a copyright claim.

"The copyright system is abused" is a very different claim than "the use of rhythm, rests, and timing greatly increases the original melody space". It's odd to refute one with the other.

no but look at how this very simple difference will lead to you being sued is very similar to look at how this very simple difference but slightly less simple than the other one and more of a real world scenario really will keep you from being sued.

It's very odd to not see the similarity between the two claims and how one exists as a critique of the other.