Klarinet Archive - Posting 000084.txt from 1998/08

From: Grant Green <gdgreen@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Copy*RIGHT* Question for "Experts"!
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 16:06:21 -0400

Usually, the performance rights are licensed to ASCAP or BMI, who collect
royalties from the venues where copyrighted works are performed or played.
TV stations/networks, radio stations, concert halls, bars with music, all
pay royalties which (I believe) also cover the live performance of
copyrighted works.

Grant

At 03:44 PM 8/3/98, you wrote:
>Mark,
>
>You wrote
>>>>There's yet another twist in the law ... you cannot create an
>arrangement of
>>>>a copyrighted work without permission of the copyright owner,l for either
>>>>private or public performance.
>I wrote back
>>>This is interesting:
>>>Then if I re-harmonize and interpret a song ad-lib, improvising, say
>>>playing the piano in a lounge gig, not writing down the notes in a score,
>>>am I technically in violation of the copyright?
>To which you replied
>>Yes. It's gone to court many times, especially in the advertising business
>>("If I change enough notes, it's not the same song, so I don't have to pay
>>royalties"). The law makes no distinction on size of audience. When was the
>>last time you paid royalties on a public performance of copyrighted music,
>>too? (that's _music_ under copyright, not the printed music) You're
>>_supposed_ to :^)
>
>It sounds as though you're saying that any musician on a paying gig is
>violating a copyright every time he improvises from a score, or a fake book
>- or even if he is playing by ear. What if he's playing for kicks, and not
>getting paid? And are all fake books violations of the copyright laws? If
>so, would the kind that only give you the changes - no melody line - also
>be in violation?
>
>Or how about this: Every week I play the organ for services in two
>different churches. Both of them have hymnals that they bought, and I
>assume satisfied the copyright holders that way. Thanks to a jazz
>background, I'm able to adlib transpositions to make a singer more
>comfortable, or adapt a piano arrangement for organ as I play it, or fake
>different voicings and bass lines so every verse of a hymn doesn't sound
>the same as the one before. Church organists do those things routinely.
>Being able to do them is expected. It's one of the qualifications for the
job.
>
>The foregoing questions just about cover everything I do as a performer.
>Should I be constantly looking over my shoulder for the copyright cops? If
>you carry your interpretation to a reductio ad absurdum, I'd be in
>violation when I play a passage marked forte as pianissimo. Are you sure
>you have this right?
>
>I'd be interested in Kevin Fay's reaction, too.
>
>Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.net>
>

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Grant D. Green gdgreen@-----.com
www.contrabass.com Just filling in on sarrusophone
Contrabass email list: list@-----.com
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