What is a Copyright?
Music Copyright is a very important aspect of the music industry. The Copyright law was established to preserve the creativity and rights of authors, composers, performers of expression. Copyright is the law that protects the property rights of the creator of an original work in a fixed tangible medium. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/copyright) A fixed tangible medium is something substantial like copying lyrics on paper or putting a song on tape or CD. Copyright can be seen every where in the music industry. Many music artist of our culture today have been involved in copyright issues. Recently, on MTV news it was stated that, "As the music industry becomes increasingly concerned about protecting the integrity of artists copyrights in the age of MP3. Prince has now filed a motion in New York federal court aimed at shutting down several websites offering free downloads of the Artist's songs." (http://www.mtv.com…19990304/prince.jhtml) In addition, in recent music news, "Nine Inch Nails lead man Trent Reznor copyright infringement suit was dismissed. Another artist claimed that the Reznor had stolen material for his last album." (http://www.mtv.com…19991202/nine_inch_nails.jhtml) The copyright law has become an important legal aspect to know our music generation.
What works can be copyrighted?
Copyright applies to more than musical works. It protects many different things. It protects musical works, literary works, dramatically works, dance works (choreography), sculptures, graphic works (maps, graphs, etc.), pictorial works, motion pictures (videotapes), sound recordings, and even computer creations (computer programs, databases). (http://askjeeves.com/copyright/html) Although there are a lot categories that can be protected by copyright, not every expression can be protected. These original expressions are not eligible for copyright protection. Ideas and discoveries are not eligible for copyright protection. A speech or music performance that is not recorded, written (in a fixed medium) is not protected. Titles are also not eligible for copyright protection. For example, if artist A writes a song titled "That Thing" and then artist B writes a totally different song, but titles the song "That Thing" also. Artist B has not infringed on the copyright law.
How can an artist copyright their work?
Copyright prot...
... middle of paper ...
...ts new and old artist from having their original forms of expression stolen. A performing artist or songwriter should have a good understanding of the factors of the copyright law. An artist always wants to protect their work so the wrong people can not abuse it. By having a deep knowledge about the copyright law, the artists can save themselves from paying endless unnecessary legal fees.
.
Work Cited
Baskerville, David. Music Business HandBook and Career Guide. 7th ed. California:
Sherwood Publishing, 2001.
Copyright in Music. Apr. 1999.
Duration. Mar. 2000.
Fair Use. Jan. 1999.
Mechanical Licensing. May. 2001.
Prince Files Copyright Infringement Suit Against Website. Mar. 1999.
Court Dismisses Copyright Suit Against Trent Reznor. Dec. 1999.
What is Copyright? Apr. 2001.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/copyright
...nd a strong message that the illegal distribution of copyrighted works has consequences, but if individuals are willing to step forward on their own, we want to go the extra step and extend this option" (RIAA 1).
The central message of this text is that increasingly, outdated copyright laws are being manipulated and put to use in a ludicrous manner. This is resulting in the suppression of people’s ability to generate and share their own creative expressions.
COURSEWORK FOR CONTRACT LAW (MUSIC*) *On what basis does the inclusion of samples of a recording made by *Pink Floyd constitute an infringement of copyright? In civil law regarding copyright, there are two types of infringement; primary and secondary. Primary is concerned with the unauthorised use of copyrighted works and secondary would involve the dealing or making commercial use of such infringing copies. In the music industry, an infringement of copyright often consists of an existing piece of music being used by an artist without permission from the person or company who own the rights to the original music or recorded sound. This is exactly what has happened with Alexei Duff. He has used two samples from two Pink Floyd tracks and did not get permission from the appropriate copyright owners. If found guilty in court, this would be regarded as primary infringement. There is a lot of confusion about sampling in the music industry. Several think that if only a small fraction of a piece of music is sampled, whether it is a few notes or a few seconds, then it does not need to be cleared for use however this is not the case. The 1988 Copyright Act says that for an infringement of copyright to have taken place, the sample used must be of a substantial part. This means that it is the quality rather than the quantity of the sample used which determines if an infringement of copyright has occurred. In the case of Alexie Duff, one of his tracks uses a ten second sample extracted from the song “Dark side of the moon” and the sample is looped throughout the track entire. This means that the sample substantially contributes to the overall piece of music created by the artist and as the sample has not been cleared, an infringement of ...
This article was a very interesting look at the music industry and how copyright vs. sampling works in that field. It made me think of copyright lawsuits in fine art and how the courts determine if an artist copying or was inspired by a work.
Over the past decade the societal view of creative society has greatly changed due to advances in computer technology and the Internet. In 1995, aware of the beginning of this change, two authors wrote articles in Wired Magazine expressing diametrically opposed views on how this technological change would take form, and how it would affect copyright law. In the article "The Emperor's Clothes Still Fit Just Fine" Lance Rose hypothesized that the criminal nature of copyright infringement would prevent it from developing into a socially acceptable practice. Thus, he wrote, we would not need to revise copyright law to prevent copyright infringement. In another article, Entitled "Intellectual Value", Esther Dyson presented a completely different view of the copyright issue. She based many her arguments on the belief that mainstream copyright infringement would proliferate in the following years, causing a radical revision of American ideas and laws towards intellectual property. What has happened since then? Who was right? This paper analyzes the situation then and now, with the knowledge that these trends are still in a state of transformation. As new software and hardware innovations make it easier to create, copy, alter, and disseminate original digital content, this discussion will be come even more critical.
According to “The Changing Landscape of the Music Business,” Artists have to develop an image that appeals to the supporters in order to be unique. This can be achieved through the promotion of their music, but if the artist makes the wrong move, this can result in the artist struggling to sustain their career. There are many ways that licensing music can go wrong, with it either going into the wrong hands, or is abused with promotion so that the song isn’t enjoyed anymore, resulting in less sales or profit for the
does not give anyone the right to ban or prosecute someone’s music, because an artist has
“Copyright is a fundamental right of ownership and protection common to all of the arts” (O’Hara & Beard, 2006, p. 8). “It is a form of intellectual Property (IP)” and it gives the owner exclusive rights to the copyright (O’Hara & Beard, 2006, p. 11).
Copyright is not a natural process; it is essentially an agreement between the state and an artist, where the state gives the artist a monopoly on works they make for a certain time in hopes that this artist will continue to create more works. This agreement is beneficial for all parties; the artist gets money for their work (as no one is allowed to produce copies unless granted permission) and an incentive to create new works. The state has artisans to keep the public happy.
The music publishing industry at a glance would seem to be those who print sheet music, method books, lead sheets, and all of the texts or notated music that musicians (and those aspiring to be musicians) use. Years ago, this was what most music publishers did, but as the industry has evolved the process that become much more complex. Music is not just ink and paper, intellectual material and property to the individual who writes it. Therefore the song does not become "a song" when it is written down. This is not an easy concept to grasp because the song by itself has no physical makeup. A song could exist once it is played for the first time, and songs can even exist inside the mind of a songwriter. This concept is why the publishing business can be so complex; we are dealing with intellectual property.
There are teenagers that download more than 200 songs on their MP3 players, IPod, or their cell phones. Do they know what is a copyright? A copyright is a form of legal protection automatically provided to the authors of original works of authorship(what is copyright?). People would ask why do copyright exist. Copyright law exists in the U.S because it is a constitutional right(Why does copyright laws exist?) This is why people should follow the copyright laws for downloading things.
Copyright seems like a simple thing to understand and respect. You don’t go and use someone else’s work and claim it is yours. However, with the rise of Youtube came people who would break copyright rules and upload others work or even upload entire movies and shows. The solution for taking down or de-monetizing any videos found guilty of doing this was for Youtube to put a bot in their algorithm and let it deem which videos where guilty of copyright. Now in the first few years this actually wasn’t a bad thing as only videos that where committing plagiarism where getting taken down. Sadly though around mid-2010 Youtube decided to crack down on copyright and made the bot more aggressive.
Music is not written down, and is passed on through word of mouth. This allows for further adaptations of the piece by the performer.
...e songs for free? With things like music, these rules of copyright are seldom followed. Many times, music is not distributed with the artist’s permission. The artist’s song, or even album, will often get leaked on a website before the actual album or song gets released by the artist. It connects back to one of the issues with the Internet when it comes to copyright infringement. Often times, people will try to alter the voice, beat, or tempo of a song to protect themselves from a lawsuit for copyright infringement. This can be risky, however, because artists may try and argue how the song lyrics are still theirs, even if the beat is altered slightly. Music downloaders like iTunes are better at protecting the rights of artists, because they require listeners to purchase the music they want to listen to. This helps out a lot when lawsuits could very much get involved.
A copyright is a legal means that gives the creator of mythical, imaginative, musical, or other creative work the solitary right to publish and sell that work. Copyright owners have the right to manage the reproduction of their work, including the right to receive imbursement for that reproduction. An author may contribute or sell those rights to others, including publishers or recording corporations. Breach of a copyright is called copyright