On Aug 10 2007, Gilbert B. Rodman wrote:
it's legal to perform other people's songs without their permission.
My previous comment notwithstanding, I AM going to correct this: absent a handful of unusual and narrow exceptions (like public performance of nondramatic musical works at agricultural fairs) -- no, it's not. You almost always need a non-statuory license for public performances.
To the best of my knowledge, there's no actual analog for a compulsory license in other media
This is the more important point flowing from the previous correction: in fact the copyright acts of not only the U.S. but most other jurisdictions are absolutely lousey with compulsory licenses. Many of them, like fair use or fair dealing, are at a zero royalty, but they are extremely common. Depending on what you mean by "other media," they also occur with frequency in other IP and non-IP ownership regimes. There is a large, and frankly unmanageable literature studying this. DLB On Aug 10 2007, Gilbert B. Rodman wrote:
Well, no. IP law *is* pretty clear about this -- at least with respect to music -- and your rights as the composer of a song DON'T prevent other people from performing/recording it. The world is filled with bad cover bands (and, to a lesser extent, good ones) precisely because it's legal to perform other people's songs without their permission. The mechanism by which this is achieved is called a compulsory license, and the only major exception to it that looks like what Ed describes below is that the songwriter has the right to choose who records his/her song first. But it's perfectly legal for anyone who so desires to perform/record someone else's composition once it's already been recorded.
In the context of recording, the cover artist is obligated to give proper credit to the original songwriters and to pay royalties. In the context of live performance, the ASCAPs and BMIs of the world theoretically keep track of such things -- though it's the performance venues, rather than the performers, who pay the bill (at least directly). What's not legal is passing those songs off as your own -- THAT'S fodder for a lawsuit -- but you have no legal grounds to sue for infringement simply because someone else plays a tune you wrote without your say-so.
To the best of my knowledge, there's no actual analog for a compulsory license in other media -- so this analogy isn't going to do much good, either way, to settle the question of what to do with online materials. But if we're gonna go down this path at all, let's at least get the basic facts straight.
cheers gil
Ed Lamoureux wrote:
sorry IP law is really clear on this. once I put the ideas into form, they are protected by copyright law. You can't copy my song without permission. If you do, it's infringement. Doesn't matter where you do it. If I find out about it, I can seek a cease and desist order
On Aug 10, 2007, at 12:54 PM, Conor Schaefer wrote:
It's more of a philosophical issue to me than a legal one, the answer to whether street performance of a piece grants another the right to play it. This is especially pertinent in your analogy to the net, because of the compartmentalization of spaces. For instance, while you as a street performer might take issue with my playing your song on the corner opposite you, what if I'm doing it on the other side of town? What if on another continent? While word might eventually reach your ears of this, don't assume that you could use a search engine to find work you made--especially if it's multimedia, an area in which the search industry is trying desperately to improve performance.
Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D. Associate Professor, Multimedia Program and Department of Communication Co-Director, New Media Center 1501 W. Bradley Bradley University Peoria IL 61625 309-677-2378 <http://slane.bradley.edu/com/faculty/lamoureux/website2/index.html> <http://gcc.bradley.edu/mm/> AIM/IM & skype: dredleelam Second Life: Professor Beliveau
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