Musical question: is it OK to copy partially?

[Nikolas]

It is on the edge, and rather towards illegal.

Copying the chords alone, is not illegal. Copying lyrics can be illegal, although there are so many cliché phrases that it is difficult to distinguish. I mean "She loves you". Yeah the beatles did it, but I can't see how they can keep anyone from using the same phrase. Copying an entire song though is different than a phrase, so again it falls probably to the illegal category.

Making a cover now... That IS tricky.

If you want to make a cover from a song that is older than 75 years, then you can, no problem. But you can't make a cover BASED on a version that is younger than 75 years. Meaning that music and the recording hold different copyrights. Beethoven is not copyrighted. Steal ahead EVERYTHING! Recordings made after 1930 or something ARE copyrighted.

That said, the song you would like to make cover, is most probably (99.5%) copyrighted as it's music and lyrics, as it always happens, AFAIK, to every song in a published record.

In effect, legally you can't make a cover, but if you did, your own recording and own version would hold their own copyrights.

If it's for a free game, do pretty much whatever you want. If it's for a commercial, I would advice against it. Or ask. There's no harm in asking really.

In the end, I know that you said it would be easier, but even if you took a license and whatever you would still be bound by the original writer. why not make your own lyrics and tracks, even if you base them onto an existant song? As I said drums and chords are not copyrighted (although if you do go and replicate EXACTLY the drums and drum fills, as well as chords in all inversions, then I can see that you could in the end have some kind of problem, although I've not heard of any case).

Very roughly, and no offense intended and everything:

All reagge songs are the same (the same way that all rock songs are the same). You simply can't stop people from making simmilar songs. Enter lyrics + melody and it's a cover. Avoid the lyrics and the main melody and you're there... You just used something for inspiration.

[GarageGothic]

Steel Drummer, what you could do is record a reggae version of a traditional song, perhaps a spiritual. These songs rarely have known composers or lyricists and are thus copyright free (and even so, most of them pre-date the 20th century, so you're in the clear). Just make sure that you base it on the original version rather than a later variation, which could be copyrighted (one example of this issue would be the many versions of Sinnerman that contain the changes and additions made by The Weavers in the 1950's).

[Gregjazz]

Yeah, you'd have to pay royaltees to do that. Well, first of all, just contact the author of the song, and see who owns the license.

Who knows, they might just give you permission (get it in writing, I'd imagine) to cover it.

[Steel Drummer]

Gregjazz: I doubt I'd be able to contact the author of the song (Bob Marley) , I think my best bet would be to make an original song.
Nikolas: This game is freeware. I might be able to get away with including my own version of a song, because of this (I doubt a record company is going to be patrolling the internet for freeware games which use cover songs in their soundtracks).
GarageGothic: I might try that approach as well; it just depends on what the game's 'director' thinks (I'm still waiting for feedback from him on whether I should do a cover song or not).

[Gregjazz]

Gregjazz: I doubt I'd be able to contact the author of the song (Bob Marley)

You contact whoever has the license. Usually by contacting the author, you can find out who owns the license, but since (obviously) Bob Marley isn't with us anymore, it'll take a little research to find out who owns the song.

[Steel Drummer]

I believe it's Universal Music Group, but I probably won't go through all the trouble of getting permission to cover the song because:

1. It's not the original recording the Marley made.
2. The game is freeware, so obviously, the company wouldn't get any profits from it (unless they charged me to release a cover of it).
3. Technically, it's my own song; certain elements of the original song have been used in my version. 

In theory, when people a song is "copyrighted", don't they mean that the 'recording' is copyrighted? Sometimes artists will use each other's lyrics (or portions of them) in songs- Marley himself did that to Curtis Mayfield with One Love/People Get Ready. Another thing that came to my mind: There are a lot of videos on YouTube- and other viral video sites- of bands/soloists covering (usually 'copying') a band/artist's song. These people aren't required to pay a fee to have their performances published on the internet for free viewing, I feel this is essentially the same thing.

[DutchMarco]

I know a lot of artists have covered each other, but do they have to pay royalties or anything? I wouldn't be using any samples from the song(s), just the same chord progressions and lyrics.

To answer this one subquestion of the whole lot: Yes, they do have to pay royalties. this of course excludes traditional songs and other public domain songs. I don't think you'd have to pay royalties for playing national anthems!