On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 11:40 AM, Kaser, Derek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Less than a month ago, Prince filed a DMCA complaint with YouTube to have > videos of his performance of a Radiohead song at a music festival taken down. > Since only the copyright holder can submit a DMCA complaint, Prince must have > been taking the stance that the performer of the song, not the author of the > song, holds the copyright to a performance.
Not sure about that. If he holds copyright of the lyrics, he has rights over "public performances" of his work, which includes both distribution of his presentations of them, and cover artists. However, if his publishing company holds copyright, then they'd have to issue the DMCA. If the lyrics themselves are copyrighted by some other person, and licensed to Prince & Recording Company, only that lyricist could file. He can't file against the distribution of his performances, which are owned by whoever did the recording. But he can file against misuse of his lyrics & music. Distributing soundless videos would be legal. Or distorting the sound in some way. Or, very likely, only using the sound in clips, as commentary on a larger piece (i.e. a recording of "the concert," including conversations & interviews & crowd shots, and only occasionally letting his music be heard). I can see a reasonable argument that both distribution of his performances and cover performances are violations of copyright--against whoever owns the lyrics and music, not related to the visuals at all. OTOH, I agree that the biggest hurdle most artists of any sort face these days is not piracy, but obscurity, and he's given his cover artists a big boost in that area. And some enterprising fan should grab the contested videos and redub them with parody lyrics, which he'd have no (legal) way to object to. -- "I follow Eris blindly in all things. That She is the Goddess of Chaos simplifies this immensely." -- Christian the Pagan _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss
