On 14 Feb 2006 at 8:36, Kim Patrick Clow wrote: > Had Hyperion settled with Dr Sawkins at the onset, they would have > paid him 3000.00 UK Sterling Pounds, versus 3 million they lost after > going to trial --and then losing on appeal. And the issue isn't a > single judge's 'bad decision' ( Hyperion lost in the first trial and > then on appeal). The statue itself needs modification.
Perhaps, but the original decision itself was musicological nonsensical, however it may have conformed to the UK copyright law. > And while I am fearful of what this will do to Hyperion, Dr. Sawkin's > was hardly a Simon LeGreed in this matter. He was asking for modest > compensation early on. Er, he *was* compensated for his editing. That is the main thing that, in my experience, most people miss -- they think Sawkins was not paid for his edition. But he was already paid an editing fee. He was asking for performance royalties, which generally go only to performers, arrangers and composers. He basically argued that he was a de facto co-composer with de Lalande, which is nonsensical, even if the judge did agree with it. > But this case illustrates exactly the thorny issues involved in > preparing music editions of older music; and the editor's rights. No, it involves nothing of the sort. The Sawkins case was *not* about copyright in a printed edition. It was about performance/recording royalties. The musicological endeavor by definition is *not* compositional. The editor of an edition is BY DEFINITION a slave to the original composer's intentions. Sawkins was doing nothing more than trying to recover the original intentions of the composer from sources that imperfectly conveyed the original work. Finding that this act is worthy of performance royalties will have only one result: fewer new editions will be prepared for recordings, or the editions will be prepared by performers instead of scholars. Or, the recordings won't happen at all if a performance royalty must be paid to the editor. The Hyperion decision is a Pyrrhic victory that will ultimately be a disaster for recording companies, performing groups and editors. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
