Klarinet Archive - Posting 000962.txt from 1999/03

From: charette@-----.org
Subj: [kl] Copyrights
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 11:50:10 -0500

The whole copyright issue is one of those wonderful things that come around on
our little list once in a while, and inspires great prose & roaring flames.
It's an issue I feel is germane to all of us; what can we legally do with
something we've paid good money for, and what do we do when we something we
know is patently illegal transpires.

In the first case, the laws are reasonably clear as to what we can legally
do with copyrighted material; in the case of printed music, we can perform it
privately and possibly publically. We can't make personal copies of it for any
reason. There's more if you want to check; there's the Music Publishing site
along with the US government sites, and most European governments have
information sites. Asian sites may have information, too, but my Japanese is
horrible and I know no other language at all (bar a smattering of Latin and
Greek from high school days).

The ban against personal copying is honored more in the breech than the
following, and I know personally of many music teachers who copy music
from a book rather than having the student buy the book. It's a personal
judgement call on whether or not _you_ do this. To me, it's like exceeding
a speed limit - if you're caught, don't whine, just pay the price.

Now, when we know something is illegal, what should we do? That's the hardest
part. Something I did when I was quite a bit younger was buy LPs and books
in Taiwan for incredibly low prices. 20 or so years ago Taiwan did not
subscribe to the International Copyright agreement, and made copies of
imported material. For students "in the know" it was the same price to fly to
Taiwan, party on the beach, buy all your textbooks, ship them home, and
fly back as it was to buy them at the college bookstore. That scene ended a
number of years back. A legal loophole.

The loopholes are now closed (at least the easy ones). What do we do when we
see laws being broken? I use my own test - but yours may vary. My personal
test is similar to the ones I use when driving - if it appears to me that
someone may be threatening to me, I call the police. I've called in both
people I think to be drunk, people going way too fast, and people going way
too slow. I let the police do their job after that.

For copyrights I look at the possible damage. For some complete articles quoted
and sent to Klarinet - I avert my eyes. We should all know that it's something
we shouldn't do, but sometimes there's no other way. I know of a few cases
here on Klarinet where authors were quoted from articles verbatim and were
very happy about it, since the articles were copyrighted by a journal that
no longer exists, and trying to get clearance from the courts or estates of
the former holders is well nigh impossible.

Copying an entire article that is easily accessible is something that I'd
rather not have to cope with. It _is_ wrong, even if the article has been passed
around for quite some time. Now, a pointer to a place where such an article is
kept - well, I don't care if someone were to publish that.

I am much more strict with my Web site, since that is closer to traditional
publishing. As the readers of the Bulletin Board know, I occasionally delete
entire postings on the BBoard since they're readily accessable. I get
clearance from all authors for their work before putting it up, and make sure
that the copyright notice is on every page. I also try & protect the copyrights
and works; I've had pages "borrowed" from the site with no attributions, or
even "borrowed" with the copyrights & page counters intact as text! I politely
ask people to delete the pages and replace them with a link; if they don't
I ask their ISP to shut them down. I _have_ to do that to protect both my
work and the work of the authors on my Web site. If a person asks any of the
authors for reprint permission - that's the author's right, not mine. I don't
ask for exclusive rights.

I allow myself some "gray", even when I know it's a black & white issue. I
think that if we all follow some "common sense" (even though we know how
uncommon that may be) we'll continue to get through these issues just fine.

Now, there are a few changes I'd like to see in the copyright laws, but I have
no idea how or who to present them to. My changes (not well thought out legally)
would be in those areas where printed or recorded material is "out-of-print";
I'd like a simple way to pay for a personal copy of the material. As it is,
some copyright holders have no intention of ever re-issuing their material,
and will not grant permission to copy. Perhaps somethings based upon the old
renewal terms; after 35 years of not being re-released/printed you are permitted
to copy the material for a payment of X to the Y agency.

I've mentioned before that Klarinet is an anarchy; not in the spirit of
lawlessness but rather in the spirit of "a utopian society of individuals who
enjoy complete freedom without government" (Webster's Ninth Collegiate
Dictionary, falling apart at my desk). Be that we can keep it that way.

Cheers,
Mark Charette@-----.org

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