David Chan wrote:
> Chris Sawer wrote:
>
> > Does anyone have any objections to people using a license like this
> > [(BSD-style)] on music submitted to the mutopia archive that they've
> > composed / arranged / edited themselves?
>
> I think it will be great for people to be able to use licenses like this
> for Mutopia. However, I think the license should *explicitly* state that
> the music may be performed, recorded and distributed in audio format
> without royalty fees. This is because allowing royalty-free performance
> and recording is the opposite of the normal practice in the music
> industry, so we should make it completely clear that we're going against
> the norm.
Agreed.
<snip>
> Maybe we could also come up with an example license to go on the web
page,
> for people to use if they want to. This should help limit the number of
> different licenses we have flying around in Mutopia.
I think this is a very good idea actually - I'd go as far to say it would
be simplest if we restrict submissions to Mutopia to one of three licenses:
1) Public Domain (already being used - must be used if music is entirely
out of copyright)
2) A BSD Style license which we write and put on the website
3) A copyleft license (still to be decided)
This makes it easier for submitters (they don't have to make up their own
BSD Style license if they want to use one) and people downloading the music
(they can see clearly from the table of music exactly which license is
being used). Does this make sense?
OK, here's a first attempt at a BSD Style license for music, heavily based
on Jan's example for software - suggestions and improvements gratefully
received :-)
Copyright (c) 2000 By <name>
All rights reserved.
Permission is hereby granted, without written agreement and without license
or royalty fees, to use, copy, modify, distribute, perform and record this
music and to distribute, perform and record modified versions of this music
for any purpose, provided that the above copyright notice and this
paragraph appear in all copies of this music.
My only slight concern is that there's nothing to say that the copyright
notice should appear, for example, in the booklet of a CD which has a
recording of the music on, or that any credit should be given if the music
is performed in concert.
Comments, anyone?
Chris
