> David Chan wrote:
> > Chris Sawer wrote:
> 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 :-)
It looks good. I think there should definitely be a disclaimer section
too.
> 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
We could change "[this notice must] appear *in* all copies of this music"
to "... *with* all copies of this music, whatever the format of the copy,
printed, audio or otherwise." That should cover non-printed forms of the
music, and allows things like midi files where you can't embed text. Is
this too onerous for broadcast?
> Or that any credit should be given if the music is performed in concert
The license as it stands doesn't give away the right to claim authorship
of the work so I think the composer/arranger will usually get credited
with their work. It would be very unusual to perform music at a concert
without saying who the composer is.
But it would also be nice if the audience were told that the a version of
the music they were hearing is freely available. We could add a sentence
like this: "If you perform the music, it is strongly requested that you
credit the Mutopia project and print the address of its website." I don't
think we should make it a *requirement* - e.g. if Mutopia collapses and
all our music is taken on by another free music project, it would be a
silly requirement.
Here's the license with the changes suggested above.
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, this paragraph and the following disclaimer appear
with all copies of this music, whatever the format of the copy, printed,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
audio or otherwise. If you perform the music, it is strongly requested
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
that you credit the Mutopia project.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
THIS MUSIC IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
[disclaimer ripped from the X11 license: http://www.x.org/terms.htm]
I wonder why disclaimers are always SHOUTED?
I'm aware that the disclaimer makes it a lot longer, which is a bad thing!
However I think we really need a disclaimer or some oddball will try and
sue us for our typos. Can the footer text be made smaller, or is it
already as small as is readable?
Thanks,
David
--
A problem shared is a problem squared.
