At 3:18 PM -0500 3/5/07, Raymond Horton wrote:
One is an an old recording of a family from decades ago, and the
other a more recent recording of a former Amish woman now living in
another state.
I was able to track down the latter woman, have spoken to her
several times and bought several more recordings from her. She is
quite a virtuoso, and her recordings of these old, traditional
yodels, which she has embellished over the years, can be very useful
to my work.
Do I need her permission to use her versions of these old, traditional tunes?
Two of her homemade CDs which she sells are labeled: "copywrite
(sic) 19xx" (no circle c). A third CD is more commercial looking,
but I recall it as similarly mislabeled (I can't locate it right
now). A cassette is not labeled Copyright at all. Most of my
needs are met by the home-made CDs and cassette (she keeps repeating
the same traditional songs, with minor variations, and adding
originals in which I am not interested).
Too many questions remaining!!! (1) How do you plan to use the
recordings? Sampling? Using the recording itself in some way? As a
source of a particular yodel? As a source to recreate
(instrumentally?) a generic yodel based on an authentic source? And
what is/are the date(s) of the claimed copyright?
Prior to the new copryight law being phased in (which is to say under
the 1909 copyright law) the copyright notice in a very specific form
and no other form was a requirement, and anything published without
it automatically entered the public domain.
I remember learning that recorded works are not copyright-able, only
scores are. Is that still the case?
No, absolutely not, and not for quite a while. It was the case under
the 1909 law, but during the runup to the revision that was passed in
1976 and took effect in 1978 Congress finally got around to adding
copyright to recordings. But again, the form was specified, and
required p-in-a-circle (for "phonorecord") rather than c-in-a-circle.
I seem to remember 1972 as the first year in which recordings could
actually be copyrighted, but I could easily be wrong.
But that's not even the main question! There would be a copyright in
the song itself, unless it was PD. There would be a copyright in the
arrangement, unless it was old enough to be PD itself or arranged
without permission. And the actual ownership of the recording can be
a real can of worms, although probably not in this case. And of
course copyright in the recording is a copyright for the performance
on that recording.
If not, then these recordings are her arrangements. If so, they
have to be considered PD.
Why?
I know for a fact that she does not have scores, does not read
music, because she mentioned she has treasured notebooks with the
words to all of these songs.
Again, the dates, both for her recordings and for the others you
found, are crucial.
The other, older recordings (not hers) have most of these same
tunes, but hers are more melismatic. I would like to be able to
draw from all of them.
I do not want to rip her off. I had intended to write her a letter,
spelling everything out, but she called me yesterday to tell me my
check made it there ok, and I made the mistake of trying to ask her
on the phone, only confusing her. (As with all Amish/former Amish,
English is not her first language. She thought a composer paints
pictures.) My request worried her, ("I don't want to give up any of
my rights") and she is going to have her "English" husband call me
on Tuesday.
I will not likely make much, if any money, from this work, so I
can't really offer any cash. I could offer them like 5% or 10% of
the profits, telling them (a) there might not be any, and (b) they
will have to trust me.
Make her feel good. Make her feel that her work is valued. Ask
permission, and give her something in writing that makes it clear
that by giving you permission for whatever your use will be, she is
not giving up any of her rights.
I, like David Bailey and most others here, and am not a lawyer and
this is not legal advice.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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