Daniel Wolf wrote:
An an American composer who's lived across the pond for a long time, I
have a question tangential to this:
Noel Stoutenburg wrote:
.
In reference to John's question about whether this would or constitute
publication, or not, I'm not sure, but I would note that in the U.S.
since the mid 1970's, and in much of the rest of the world since
before that, publication is of less significance than formerly. The
significance of publication in the U.S. until the mid 1970's, was that
in order to be copyrighted, material had to be published. In the mid
1970's, the U.S. adapted the interpretation used in the rest of the
world, and on items created since the mid 1970's, copyright exists
from the time an item is placed in fixed form, either written in a
score, of recorded.
In my experience, I can amplify this by noting that in ordinary rights
(not grand rights) situations, and excepting cases where large numbers
of scores/parts will be sold (i.e. educational), there's little or no
money to be made in selling the scores themselves, as the bulk of the
income will derive from licenses for concerts, broadcasts, and
recordings. In Germany, the blanket licensing situation is very good,
in that I can assume that radio stations, concert halls, schools, or
churches will have paid their licenses, and if I can report the
performance I will get paid from the blanket license. How true is that
now in the US? Can I make the assumption that all schools and
Universities have entered into a license arrangement or not?
I'm not a copyright lawyer, but to the best of my understanding the
following is true:
In the US, accredited educational institutions are exempt from
performance royalties, if the performances occur during the normal
school hours and are a part of the curriculum. Evening performances,
things billed as "concerts" are still required to pay performance royalties.
Public schools may well be covered by blanket licenses which the
municipalities may obtain to cover any/all public performances on
municipally owned property. Universities/colleges/conservatories are
not covered by these, but it is a good bet that ASCAP/BMI have gotten
them to buy licenses.
I feel I need to point out that I'm not sure publication was necessary
for copyright prior to 1970 -- I thought that registration with the
copyright office with accompanying hard-copy of the material was all
that was necessary. But registration was definitely necessary for
copyright protection -- no registration, no copyright protection.
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
