Brad writes:
| Thanks for the comments, all. Fear not, I have not violated any
| laws since
| this was only an idea --- the points raised by this little thread
| has
| dampened my enthusiasm for such a project. In fact, my feeling
| is that even posting
| tunes like Ashokan Farewell to the net is questionalble without
| permission,
| but I am no expert in this field. Also, when I said 'author' I
| meant the
| author of the book, not the tune --- sorry for the confusion.
Actually, the evidence so far is that you probably don't need to be
paranoid about such things, as long as you don't try selling things
without permission. A common practice in online collections (not just
music, but anything) is to include disclaimers saying that you aren't
sure of the copyright status of all the material, and if a copyright
owner objects to anything, they should send you email and you'll
remove their stuff. This generally seems to be all that's really
needed, and as long as you really are willing to remove copyrighted
material, you're probably not in any legal danger.
My web site has a couple thousand tunes in ABC, many collected from
mailing lists where attribution is often sketchy. I've exchanged
email with quite a number of tune composers, and so far I've been
asked to remove exactly one tune (which I did). In all other cases,
I've quickly gotten permission. Usually I have to explain what ABC
is, and I have a small canned explanation for that. I sent it to Jay
Ungar a couple years back, and got permission to include Ashokan
Farewell in ABC. I think he's pleased that his tune is such a hit. I
also found his other email address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] So ask him.
What I've found especially effective is to offer to either remove a
tune or to include the composer's email and/or web address in the
headers, along with any info about books and recordings. This does
several things. It gets me the correct info about the tune right from
the person who should know the most about it. It also gets across the
idea that ABC can function as "cheap advertising". ABC gives the tune
in a bare-bones fake-book form which isn't at all a competitor for a
recording. ABC can also include pointers to the composer's web site.
This looks good to anyone trying to make money from their music, and
also improves the quality of the documentation in the ABC headers.
I've also occasionally received email from tune owners simply telling
me that the headers for a tune are incomplete, and giving me the info
that should be added. I've taken this as tacit permission to have the
tune online, and I add the new info to the headers. This info always
seems to include an email or web address. Sometimes I get more email
later asking to change an address, which I do.
One thing you do have to watch out for is publishers who try to claim
ownership of traditional tunes. Note that it's almost always the
publishers who try this, not composers. But referencing a publication
dated before 1927 usually shuts them up real fast. The Fiddler's
Companion web site comes in very handy here.
Also, if you're open about a project like you described, producing a
music book for some charitable purpose, there's a good chance that
almost everyone will give permission to use their tunes for free. But
you do have to ask. The hardest part is finding the address. This is
getting easier with email, but it's still not always easy.
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