At 5:13 PM -0400 3/24/07, dhbailey wrote:
There's no way that copyright laws here in the U.S. can be construed as anything other than being for the benefit of the publishers, when the terms keep getting extended further every 20 years or 20. There are even people who are proposing that copyrights should never expire.
As I understand it, precisely that point was debated in England in the late 18th century. English law at that time existed to protect the sellers of music (and perhaps, thus, the publishers), but gave no rights at all to composers. The eventual result of the debate was to shift protection to the composers and put a time limit on the length of protection. THAT was the point from which the U.S. law of the 1790s (?) started, with the notable exception that it covered only literature and maps. Music was not covered until the revision of 1831, just in time to benefit Stephen Foster (and his publisher!).
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 _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
