Transcript Document

Copyright and Music
MUCT 602
Week of
September 8, 2008
Copyright and Music:
General History
British precursors to U.S. law: Stationers’ Guild
(1557)
The term “copyright” has its roots in an act by Queen
Anne who, in 1557, gave the exclusive rights of printing
and publishing books to the Stationer’s Guild. This act
followed the introduction of movable type and widespread
printing. A printer would apply for a license to print a work,
and if granted, this license became property that could be
passed on. The primary goal here seems to be to have
greater control over the press, rather than to protect the
rights of individual creators.
Copyright and Music:
General History
British precursor to U.S. law: Statute of Anne
(1710)
In 1710, the recognition that the artists and authors should
be the beneficiary of the sales of his or her own works led
to the Statute of Anne in England, which gave the creator
the exclusive right of reproduction for the first 28 years (14
initially, renewable for another 14) of a work’s creation,
after which the work passed into the public domain.
Copyright and Music:
General History
U.S. Copyright Law: Major Highlights
• 1790: First Statute
Based upon the Statute of Anne, it granted protection for 14 years,
renewable for another 14. This was the first major statute.
• 1831: First major revision; Music added
Initial protection was extended to 28 years, renewable for another
14 in an attempt to make U.S. copyright more like European laws.
Musical works were first granted copyright protection.
• 1909: Copyright Act
Protection was expanded yet again: 28 initial years, renewable for
an additional 28. Categories were expanded to include “all works
of authorship.”
Copyright and Music:
General History
• 1971: The Sound Recordings Act
Up to this point, sound recordings were not protected under federal
copyright law but rather only by state law. This law, enacted on
February 15, 1972, provided non-retroactive federal protection for
all sound recordings “fixed” on or after that date.
• 1976: Copyright Act
Protection was extended to life of author plus 50 years or 75 years
after date of publication/100 years after creation for corporate,
pseudonymous, anonymous works. For the first time, fair use was
clearly outlined, and unpublished works were protected. It was also
put into law that any state law that had protected sound recordings
prior to the 1971 act would not be annulled until 2047, thereby
eliminating almost completely a public domain for sound
recordings.
Copyright and Music:
General History
• 1998: Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act
Protection was again extended, this time to the life of the
author plus 70 years or 95 years after the date of publication.
This extension applied to works already protected under
copyright at that time.
• 1998: Digital Millennium Copyright Act
This act specifically addressed the use of electronic data.
The DMCA severely limited the creation of electronic data
derived from analog sources, which meant that for online
courses, in particular, information could not be shared in the
same ways that it could for in-person classes. For instance,
under this act, it would be prohibited to distribute scanned
articles or digitized audio to online classes.
Copyright and Music:
General History
• 2002: TEACH Act
The “Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act”
(TEACH) allows for the wider distribution of copyrighted materials
for distance education, assuming that certain efforts are made to
restrict access to members of a particular course. It functions like a
“fair use” clause to the DMCA by allowing electronic materials to be
used in distance learning. Under this act, it became permissible to
distribute electronic materials for educational purposes to a strictly
defined audience, if efforts were made to keep that material from
being distributed further. Hence, under the TEACH act, it is
permissible to distribute reasonable amounts of scanned materials
or to stream (not allowing for download) audio content to the
members of a particular course.
Copyright and Music:
Basic Concepts
Copyright: a set of rights granted to the
copyright owner as enumerated in Title
17, U.S.C., Section 106.
Subject to sections 107 through 120,
the owner of copyright under this title
has the exclusive rights to do and
authorize any of the following:
Copyright and Music:
Copyright Holders’ Rights
(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in
copies or phonorecords;
(2) to prepare derivative works based
upon the copyrighted work;
(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords
of the copyrighted work to the public by
sale or other transfer of ownership, or
by rental, lease, or lending;
Copyright and Music:
Copyright Holders’ Rights
(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and
choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion
pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform
the copyrighted work publicly; and
(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and
choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial,
graphic, or sculptural works, including the
individual images of a motion picture or other
audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work
publicly.
Copyright and Music:
Terminology
Title 17, U.S.C., Section 101, defines a number of
terms pertaining to copyright:
"Copies" are material objects, other than
phonorecords, in which a work is fixed by any method
now known or later developed, and from which the
work can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise
communicated, either directly or with the aid of a
machine or device.
The term "copies" includes the material object, other
than a phonorecord, in which the work is first fixed.
Copyright and Music:
Terminology
Phonorecords: material objects in which
sounds, other than those accompanying a
motion picture or other audiovisual work, are
fixed by any method now known or later
developed, and from which the sounds can
be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise
communicated, either directly or with the aid
of a machine or device. The term
"phonorecords" includes the material object in
which the sounds are first fixed.
Copyright and Music:
Fair Use
There are four criteria to be considered in
determining whether a use of copyrighted material
is “fair:”
1.
2.
3.
4.
the purpose and character of the use, including whether
such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit
educational purposes;
the nature of the copyrighted work;
the amount and substantiality of the portion used in
relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
the effect of the use upon the potential market for or
value of the copyrighted work.
Copyright and Music:
Fair Use
Consider the same rules of fair use in
relation to unpublished works.
Copyright and Music:
Public Domain
The Public Domain includes material distributed
freely by creators with no restrictions on use and
material for which previous copyright or patent
has expired or was not renewed. Certain
government publications and collections of data
or statistics are also in the Public Domain.
Works under copyright fall into the Public Domain
depending upon the circumstances of their
creation and first publication.
Copyright and Music:
Copyright vs. Licensing
Copyright falls under Title 17; a license agreement is
a contract. You agree to abide by the terms of the
license.
Licensing can govern specific use of materials, such
as distribution for electronic resources, re-use of a
recording in a film, or playing music on the radio or in
a public place.
Licensing is the mechanism through which
permission beyond fair use is granted.
Copyright and Licensing
Creative Commons
A type of licensing that grants “some
rights reserved” on a work.
These are free and the creator decides
how their work can be used by other
people.
Copyright and Licensing
Creative Commons
When registering for a cc license there
you get three differently formatted
licenses.
Commons Deeds = human-readable
Legal Code = lawyer-readable
Metadata = computer-readable
Copyright and Licensing
What are the advantages of creative
commons?
If you were the creator of a work would
you ever want people to use your work
in ways other than your original
intentions?
Would you gain anything from letting
other people use your work?
Copyright and Music:
Copyright of Work vs. Copyright of Edition
Copyright of works and copyright of
recordings of those works are separate
entities. More specifically, a work may be in
the public domain - such as a Bach cantata
would be - but a recording of that work is not
necessarily in the public domain.
The same rule applies for original works and
modern editions.
Copyright and Music:
Sound Recordings
Until 1972, sound recordings were not
covered by federal copyright. Up to that
point, they were covered by state laws
which tended to be more restrictive.
There is usually more than one
copyright owner for sound recordings:
performers, lyricists, composers, etc.
Copyright and Music:
Enforcement
There is no governing body who
oversees copyright violation. It is up to
the copyright holder to discover and
protest copyright violation.
Copyright and Music:
Further Reference
Music Library Association Copyright
Clearinghouse
http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/copyright/
University of Texas “Crash Course in Copyright”
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/
cprtindx.htm
U.S. Copyright Office’s “How To Investigate the
Copyright Status of a Work”
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.html#before2