Klarinet Archive - Posting 000426.txt from 1998/08

From: "Jones, Sarah S" <jonesss@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Re: Copyrights
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1998 08:51:08 -0400

In regards to the Feist decision, there is really no
comparision to music copyrights. Feist enlarged the amount
of material that is uncopyrightable. No one would argue
that music is uncopyrightable. Therefore, to be safe in
your use of music, you need to ensure that the music you
are copying/arranging/etc. is in the public domain by
virtue of an expired copyright. Most older works
copyrighted in the US (those copyrighted before 1978) were
copyrighted for 26 years with an optional renewal for an
additional 26 years. An automatic additional 19 year
renewal was added in 1976 for works which were not already
in the public domain. For works copyrighted in or after
1978, the term is life of the author plus 50 years (75
years from publication if copyright owned by a business).
So, right now you are safe to use works published before
1923. Be careful to use original editions however. If it
can be proven that you copied from someone elses
copyrightable arrangement, you are infringing.

Another issue in copying music is fair use. There are
provisions in the law for allowable use of copyrighted
materials. This includes some, but by no means all,
copying for educational purposes. Fair use law is often
unclear and decided on a case to case basis. In my
opinion, making a large print copy if one is not offered by
the publisher would be a fair use but there are no
guaranteed that I know of. In fair use cases, there are
four points considered by the courts. These can be useful
in deciding if your use might be covered. The points are:
1) The purpose or character of the use, including whether
such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit
commercial purposes
2) The nature of the copyrighted work
3) The amount and substantiality of the portion used in
relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4) The effect of the use upon the potential market for or
value of the copyrighted work.
These four points are considered seperately and
collectively to decide a question of fair use.

I could say more about this topic and supplement with legal
references and if I had more time I would try to do so in
the case of the enlarged copy (there probably is a case
about this) If I get the chance in the next few days, I
will look into it. I am at the beginning of a thesis on
music copyrights, so I spend plenty of time doing legal
research =)

Sorry I went on this long. Hopefully, some of this
information was useful to some people. If not, hopeful I
did not waste to much valuable time.

--
Jones, Sarah S
jonesss@-----.edu

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