BARRY’S SONG?

SPATS The jingle “There’s No Sale Like a Barry’s Sale.” used to tout the frequent sales at Barry’s Cameras, has been around for a while now. Some would say since 1946, the year Irving Berlin wrote “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”

“Anyone with ears would immediately identify ’No Business’ as the song that was ripped off in the Barry’s jingle.” says WHITEY THOMAS, who has written themes for Macy’s and Kroger. TOM MERRIMAN, who may have written more jingles than anyone in Dallas, including spots for Frito-Lay and Dr Pepper, agrees: “How can Barry’s do that? They must be completely crazy.”

BARRY STEIN, the Barry in question, says, “I don’t believe it’s the same song at all. There’s one phrase that’s similar.” Says JOHN WILSON, Barry’s advertising manager, “It’s a similar tune, but we made ours without the exact number of measures to the bar, or something, to make it different.”

According to Dallas copyright attorney KEN GLASER, “The notion that you can get around copyright infringement by changing a few notes is nonsense. Infringement is based on access to the material and substantial similarity. Substantial similarity is what’s similar after changes are made.”

As for the song’s owners, LISA ALTER of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, which administers the Irving Berlin catalogue, says, “We vigorously defend our copyrights. Not only was no license issued, we would never have considered allowing a parody commercial lyric to degrade the value of this copyright. You can be sure we’re looking into The matter “