I was wondering if anyone knows the copyright status of choruses and basslines in midi compostion programs. I ask because I just bought a new midi program and used a prepackaged bassline in a song I wrote, and I am curious to know if I can legally distribute this song without running the risk of getting my ass kicked by some software company.

If you can''t find anything in the license agreement or helpfile of the product then you should send an e-mail to the developer.

Its not clear exactly what you are talking about. What program is it? Is it an automatically generated bass line or the bass line from a midifile which you have lifted?

I''m using Magix midi studio generation 5. In the program, there is an option called "Chord Wizard", which basically adds drums and a bassline to your song. It doesn''t appear to be dynamically generated. It just puts in an intro, the bassline in a few different chords, then an outro(their word!).

Long story short, I found a bassline that went absolutely perfectly with a piano solo I''ve written, and want to know if I can distribute the resulting midi file.

I looked at the manual for the latest version of the program, and there are no obvious "copyright free" passages.

For peace of mind you should contact Magix and ask them if you own full copyright of works containing music generated by the Chord Wizard.

http://support.magix.net/magix/php/page.php?page=supportform

(registration needed to fill in a support form)