Inceptions and Interpolations

Christopher Nolan's "Inception" is, simply put, a heist movie that happens in people's dreams. The theory (in the movie at least) is that as a person progresses further into a dream, or a dream within a dream, then time becomes slower. Composer Hans Zimmer took this idea and incorporated the song the characters used to wake themselves up ("Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" by Edith Piaf) and slowed it down, turning the song into a ominous theme. This droning effect becomes one of the central themes in Zimmer's score.

Turn ahead to the release of the commercial soundtrack. In the liner notes, two of the tracks are credited with "featuring interpolations of the song Non, Ne Regrette Rien performed by Edith Piaf." The first track is "Half Remembered Dream," which opens the album and introduces the droning effect that is supposedly the song in disguise. The second track, "Waiting For A Train" is much, more obvious, because it contains an actual clip of the song within it.

Now, the droning effect is used on other tracks as well, but assumedly these are produced using synthesizers and not the actual song. Thus, they are not also indicated in the liner notes. But the question is should they also be credited with containing a portion of music taken from Edith Piaf? After all, Zimmer did not write this theme. He created it by digitally altering Piaf's song, and deep in its distorted sound are the original notes created by someone other than Zimmer, who is also making money off of the album.

Or is that since Zimmer did alter the song so that it is unrecognizable in its new form, that he owes little to nothing to Piaf? This is a fairly old argument, one lawsuits thrive on. For instance, Monty Norman and John Barry have been through several lawsuits deciding which of them is the creator of the James Bond theme. Norman wrote the actual notes (which was based on another song), but it was Barry who arranged the music and decided to use an electric guitar, creating the theme's signature sound. I'm inclined to say that they both together, and not individually, are responsible for the theme, but that does not look too good on a royality check.