I think the Happy Birthday issue is precisely the type of copyright that
calls the whole thing into question. Lawyers would do well to examine the
root of the word "publish".
----- Original Message -----
From: "marigold castle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Martyn Hodgson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Lute Net"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 8:23 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: FoMRHI - copyright and a rebirth?
This isn't my field of law, and copyright is deservedly a specialty unto
it's own, but here in the US, and I suspect in most of the rest of the
world, putting a c in a circle is pretty much meaningless. Copyright is
your legal right to your work. It occurs the moment you create that work.
You don't need to do anything to assert copyright. You have that right by
default. (Though without taking positive action to assert copyright - by
recordation in the main - you may later have more difficulty proving said
work is indeed yours, but that's another issue.)
You can offer your work for free by if you so choose, for example by
posting it on certain websites that offer free music or photos, but the
work is still yours and still copyrighted. You are merely waiving any
right to royalties from the use of your work. Now, you can (and from a
legal point of view should) have your copyright recorded by government
entities, traditionally that was the meaning of the c in a circle. The
recordation doesn't create the copyright but recordation does create
certain legal presumptions and shift certain burdens of proof in case an
artist needs to pursue legal action for violation of copyright. Thus
recording your copyright is a very valuable thing assuming you have the
patience and wherewithal to record a copyright which not everyone does.
Do not assume that if a work doesn't have a c in a circle that it's not
copyrighted and is available for free use. Assuming that a work is
available free of royalties just because it's posted on a website can be a
ptential legal minefield. A lot of people don't respect copyright, let
alone understand the nuances of copyright law. (I freely admit to being
one of the latter if never one of the former.) So you can never be sure if
works posted on a website are represented correctly as to their free use.
One of the worst problems with music in particular is the issue of public
domain. A suprising amount of music is assumed to be in the public domain
and used as such when in fact it is still under copyright. Happy Birthday
springs to mind. Not so much a problem with lute music, of course. ;)
Good websites set up in advance the rules under which photos, music,
artwork, poetry or whatever can, or can't, be used by website visitors.
Flicker is a decent example. I'm not certain, from what was said below,
that FoMRHI is an equally decent example. FoMRHI should spell out in
advance and in detail the terms of contribution and use for both sides of
the equation, composers/arrangers and musicians alike. Otherwise, I would
personally be very hesitant to use their music without contacting the
artist first to make sure the music was indeed royalty free. Unless the
website stated clearly that music would be free for use if contributors
didn't attach a c in a circle, the fact some arrangers didn't use that
sign wouldn't necessarily indicate they were forfeiting their royalty
rights.
Martyn Hodgson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Following recent communications which mentioned FoMRHI, I contacted Eph
Segerman and include the relevant part of his reply below.
In short, anything in FoMRHI not specifcally restricted as detailed below
seems to be able to be freely reproduced and circulated.
MH
Ephraim Segerman wrote:
Subject: Re: Fwd: FoMRHI
From: Ephraim Segerman
To: Martyn Hodgson
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:36:22 +0000
All one needs to copyright something that is written is to print the
symbol of a C inside a circle. A few contributors to FoMRHI have
retained their copyright by doing this, but the vast majority have not.
FoMRHI has never claimed copyright on anything it published. So, except
for the few copyrighted Comms, all FoMRHI stuff can be duplicated and
circulated.
There is now a movement to revive FoMRHI, which involves action by the
Fellows.
Yours,
Eph
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