Klarinet Archive - Posting 000577.txt from 1997/03

From: "Gordy, Jonathan D" <gordyjd@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Copyright on cadenzas?
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 18:03:17 -0500

On Mon, 17 Mar 1997 16:39:22 -0600 Bob <laker29@-----.NET>
wrote:

> Mark & Martin -
>
> Isn't it true that if you change one or two things (notes or rhythms etc.)
> it would't be a direct "COPY" and therefore no Copyright Problem? Most
> could or would do that!!
> Bob Lake

Bob- Nope. All the person who has the copyright needs
to do is prove substantial similarity... A note here
and there and a rythm or two will not do it. If the
work is similar, it can be considered copying.
(changing the lyrics of a song won't help for example)

>
> At 10:34 AM 3/17/97, Martin PERGLER wrote:
> >Someone raised the question of to what extent performers "cadenzas"
> >(and presumably other interpretive decisions) are copyrighted, and
> >to what extent others can just retranscribe them and use them for
> >their own performances.
> >
> >Mark Charette replied that he thinks they are copyrighted and cannot
> >be used without permission (and made the important point that the
> >copyright holder will usually no longer be the performer) and compared
> >it to this situation of a software developer, who keeps the "ideas"
> >of his work bu gives up the rights to the "expression".
> >[Sorry about all the paraphrasing, it's hard to quote from the digest.
> >Hope I haven't misread any ideas.]
> >
> >I wonder. Is it this simple? The copyright marked on a recording
> >unquestionably applies to actual soundtrack. How much does it apply to the
> >musical ideas? Does it apply to ornamentation and cadenzas? To the
> >phrasing on Jonathan Cohler's CD? To the revolutionary fast tempo on John
> >Eliot Gardiner's recording of Bach's Magnificat? To the tricks and turns
> >of jazz clarinetists? I certainly don't know.
> >
> >University a cappella groups are notorious for often violating copyright.
> >But in some cases, apparently, their take-offs and borrowings from
> >famous songs and artists are quite legal without asking for permission.
> >I once heard (not sure how reliably) that sometimes it depends on
> >whether they actually write the music down (not legal) or not (fine).
> >
> >I don't mean this as picking on you, Mark, but intellectual property
> >law is quite complicated and it's easy to use the wrong analogies
> >to draw the wrong conclusions. Do you (or anybody else) know how the
> >split between "expression of ideas" and the ideas themselves is drawn
> >in classical music? (if this is indeed the crucial question, which
> >I don't know enough to say)
> >
> >Martin
> >
> >-------------------------------------------------------
> >Martin Pergler pergler@-----.edu
> >Grad student, Mathematics http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~pergler
> >Univ. of Chicago

--
Gordy, Jonathan D
gordyjd@-----.edu