Klarinet Archive - Posting 000022.txt from 2010/07

From: Oliver Seely <oseely@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Sheet music copyright
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:00:21 -0400


When I first began to sequence pieces by composers long dead I felt obliged to become a student of U.S. Copyright Law mainly because I didn't want to be sued for anything. Moreover, my creation of web pages in my own profession involved taking tables of facts from copyrighted handbooks, reformatting them and putting them up on the web. I was CERTAIN that before long I'd get a "cease and desist demand" from one or another copyright owner, but I figured the risk was worth it to test the waters of copyright law. When I discovered the Feist vs. Rural Telephone Services case of 1991,

http://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/499_US_340.htm

which ruled that facts cannot be copyrighted and it doesn't matter how much work one does in arranging them into some orderly form (my spin on the decision), and then later, the splendid article by the copyright lawyer who also sings in a church choir,

http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/Misc/46DLJ241.html

no "cease and desist demand" ever arrived and I relaxed a little as it began to dawn on me that alleged owners of intellectual property eagerly put copyright symbols on everything they publish. There is no penalty for lying. Perhaps more charitably I ought to say that a blanket Copyright on a Bible with the added admonition "All Rights Reserved" really ought to say, "Although the text of this Bible has been in the public domain for 2000 years, the notation in the margins represents original material and is that part of this work which is copyrighted" or some other equivalent disclaimer.

Anyway, it seems to me that publishers who indiscriminately put copyright symbols on everything they do undermine the original purpose of copyright, that of encouraging further creativity, because people who learn a little about copyright law and its history stop taking seriously many of the copyright symbols they see. The U.S. Law of "death plus 75 years" does the same thing because copyright law was never meant to enrich the heirs of the author or composer.

When I see the jolly little symbol of a xerox machine with a cross through it used by Musica Rara to discourage copying of a work by Danzi I think of it as just so much silliness. That having been said, there ARE differences between European and U.S. Copyright law which continue to cause problems for a person trying to decide just what it is that can be copied legally.

Finally, take a look at Wikipedia's offering on the history of copyright (and the number of years allowed):

The long title of the Statute of Anne, as passed by parliament, was "An
Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of Printed
Books in the Authors or purchasers of such Copies, during the Times
therein mentioned". The coming into force of the Statute of Anne in April 1710 marked a
historic moment in the development of copyright law. As the world's first copyright
statute it granted publishers of a book legal protection of 14 years
with the commencement of the statute. It also granted 21 years of
protection for any book already in print. The 14 year copyright term could be renewed for another
14 if the author was still alive after the first term expired.

You can read more about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_anne .

Oliver

> Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 08:36:14 -0500
> From: sclater@-----.edu
> To: klarinet@-----.com
> Subject: Re: [kl] Sheet music copyright
>
> Mr. Hausmann's point is well thought out. As a composer, a portion of my
> income is derived from the music I write. The ability to receive payment
> for what I do is one of the factors that keeps me composing. If my music
> is given away, I want to be the one that makes that decision. My music
> is NOT for someone else to give away. When someone other than my
> publisher takes my music and gives it away or sells it to someone else,
> it's called theft because it deprives me of what is rightfully mine. I
> just want to be adequately compensated for my efforts. We all have to
> make a living. I
>
> James Sclater
>
> James S. Sclater
> Professor of Music
> Mississippi College
> 601-925-3445
>

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