Klarinet Archive - Posting 000523.txt from 2001/06

From: rgarrett@-----.edu
Subj: Re: [kl] Copyright Question
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 00:30:04 -0400

At 08:46 AM 6/18/01 -0500, you wrote:
> From the MPA: When a copyrighted work goes out of print and becomes
> generally unavailable to the public, the fact that it is "out of print"
> does not imply that it may be reproduced in any manner without first
> receiving permission from the copyright owner. As long as the work is
> under copyright, permission to reproduce the work must always be obtained.
>
>The word "must" is a sham, in my opinion.

[SNIPPED the majority of the argument given]

>If you plan to rent Lincoln Center and charge $40 per seat for your
>performance of the piece, copies of which will be used by the performers
>during the performance, then you have big problems. If your performance
>will be in the Dogpatch Assembly of God Church on July 4, I'd go ahead and
>copy it. Maybe I'd even invite the publisher to the performance. Since
>true progress is never made unless chances are taken I feel always that
>publishers need continually to be squeezed, prodded, poked and nudged in
>the matter of limitations on their "rights."

It matters little the venue. Your description above says that
if....then.....concluding you might be caught for breaking copyright
law. It says nothing for your ethics to the composer.

As a published editor for band music and clarinet music, I would just like
to say that if you copied my published editions, for which I get royalties,
instead of paying the fee required by the publisher to obtain permission
for copying (which would place royalties in my pocket), and I could confirm
that it happened, I would file claim immediately. I guarantee you would
lose the case.

A couple of summers back, I paid Oliver Seeley use Finale to produce some
full scores of works I was planning to program. I contacted each of the
publishers and paid them their fee - even in cases of out of print
music. In those cases, I not only had to pay the fee to copy the score, I
had to pay an additional fee to copy the parts if I didn't have them. I
paid the fee - why? Because it is not ethical to steal royalties from the
composers/publishers who bear the brunt of the costs when making the music
available to us in the first place. It also says to the copyright holder,
"your work is now free to me because I don't intend to perform the music
you provided to us in a place that will make me any money." Sorry bud -
the music is available to you because they took the time to make it
available - at a substantial cost.

Best wishes,
Roger Garrett

Roger Garrett
Clarinet Professor
Director, Symphonic Winds
Advisor, Recording Services
Illinois Wesleyan University
School of Music
Bloomington, IL 61702-2900
(309) 556-3268

"A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes
another's."
Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825)

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