Klarinet Archive - Posting 000922.txt from 1997/10

From: oliver@-----.EDU (Oliver Seely)
Subj: Re: THE ULTIMATE CLARINET MIDI SITE (wellll, uhhh, maybe not)
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 20:05:49 -0400

I'm writing an article right now for an on-line conference next January.
It is entitled "Public Domain Databases in Chemistry."

The whole concept of "public domain" is one which as I get into the field seems
greatly to rankle people who sell published works for profit. It turns out that
there is really quite a lot of stuff in the public domain. One can copy it, buy
billboard space for it, broadcast it to the world on the Internet, perform
it for
profit, all without having
to ask anyone's permission to use it. But there is a catch (isn't there
always).
It turns out that there are a couple of nuances in the U.S. Copyright law which
need close examination by those of us desirous of treating information more
like knowledge than like commodity. The first is that there is the possibility
of copyrighting anything by anyone long dead, but the copyright applies only
to the PRESENTATION of that work: the font size, the color of ink, the format,
the general appearance. The second is that there is no requirement for
an owner of a copyright to state up front just what it is that is copyrighted --
the presentation only or the presentation AND the work itself. So if I convert
a copyrighted presentation of the Mozart Quintet K. 581 to Finale format and
print it out, I can copyright that -- or, if I choose, I can declare that my
presentation is in the public domain. So, a PHOTOCOPY of a copyrighted
work of the Mozart Quintet is an infringement on the copyright of the
PRESENTATION. One ought not to do that. But with the electronic media
in the state that it is today, NOTHING prevents any of us from taking Mozart's
MUSIC and putting it in a format clearly not a violation of the copyrighted
PRESENTATION.

The announcement about George Klimowicz's "ultimate" site by David Blumberg
site is interesting and certainly welcome. I'm much in favor of as many new
MIDI
files for clarinet as can be put on the Internet. I did find the announcement
to be oddly like a visit from the Association of Foresters which sets itself up
as a jolly social club when it turns out that it is in fact an insurance
company
and your jolly visitors end up trying to sell you, the unsuspecting host,
an insurance policy.

I took a look at the site and whoever is in charge of it ought to fix up those
links where one gets the message "File Not Found." There is a whole slew
of them.

Meanwhile, for the ones you do find, if they are of works by people long dead,
they are definitely in the public domain, may be downloaded and imported
into a number of music notation programs like Finale. If they are in the form
of MIDI Type 0 files, the combined track (or tracks) can be exploded into
individual parts for subsequent printout. The MIDI files can then be stored
as MIDI Type 1 files with the tracks set up for individual instruments. To
download
any of them, hold your SHIFT key down and click your mouse on the MIDI
link and you will be prompted for a filename.

Again, I say that I welcome the announcement of new MIDI offerings, but
I am never happy when a read a commercial pitch which misrepresents itself
as jolly, friendly, altruistic and educational. I would much rather that David
say up front that he is representing a group of publishers (or that George is
representing a group of publishers) who would like to
sell the following music and then list it. That way everyone knows the name
of the game for starters and the creators of that Web site are able to say
what they mean and mean what they say.

There is one old guy on the Web who has nothing to sell, and all of his Finale
files and MIDI files are declared to be in the public domain (except for the
three French songs which he is prepared to remove if anyone complains).
Download any and all of them at your leisure and don't worry about infringing
on anyone's copyright. His address is

http://chemistry.csudh.edu/oliver/clarmusi.htm

He won't be around forever -- he'll either sell out to someone who gets sick of
him giving away things and pays him off, or he'll retire, or both, so get
'em while
you can.

Oliver

   
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