Klarinet Archive - Posting 000250.txt from 2010/06

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Sharing music
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:47:23 -0400

On 06/25/2010 12:27 AM, Oliver Seely wrote:
>
> Aren't there verifiable incidents of pre-copyright composers jealously guarding their autographs from copyists? On reading about subsequent performances of such works by others I conjure up a distorted vision of members of the audience with photographic memories and lightning fast penmanship, prepared to whip out an illicit copy of the work. Human xerox machines!

Well, the famous story is about Allegri's 'Miserere', which the Vatican
kept under lock and key, only to have it written down from memory after
a single hearing by the young Wolfgang Amadeus. ;-)

The more serious point is that it is important not to fall into the
automatic assumption that the present copyright model is the optimal way
either to reward composers or to ensure the continued supply of new
compositions.

Bear in mind too that copyright is a trade-off of interests: a
short-term (well, -ish) monopoly on reproduction whose cost to the
public is supposed to be offset by an overall increase in public welfare
thanks to the creation of greater numbers of compositions.

It's not necessarily evident that tradeoff always works, and it's
arguable that in this case the increased public welfare caused by
exchange of these transcriptions outweighs any cost to the publisher and
Buddy de Franco ...

That won't stop you getting sued, of course. :-)
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