Hello all,
Chris Sawer wrote:
>
> As no one else seems to be discussing these issues right now, I will
> consolidate my thoughts on the situation.
>
> There seem to be four categories of music:
>
Hmm, I am not sure that you are being precise,
all tough you make a very fine attempt.
I will very strongly advice that you get all the people here
to team up, and get gnu.org to help with legal advice. Get a prof.
lawyer to set up the necessary documents.
The reason I say this, is that the copyright
organizations currently are running multiple lawsuits against
people who have put music on the web. And they are doing this
very aggressively (and I mean *VERY* aggressively) in Europe.
In fact it looks like they are preparing a major legal offensive
regarding these issues.
An example you all may know about, is the music archive OLGA
with sheet music for guitar etc.. AFAIK it has been shut down in 98,
and several 1000 songs put up on the web as a voluntary effort
has been removed from the web.
SO for Mutopia, whatever you do: GET A BULLETPROOF LEGAL ADVICE.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, I have skimmed the old discussion, and I have also send
some considerations on the subject to Han-Wen, and I have discussed
it via email with Richard Stallman in relation to another documentation
project related to The GNU General Public License.
I will collect a number of writings related to music and copyrights
on my homepage:
The Foobar Bazaar - http://home16.inet.tele.dk/mnyvang/
For now they are in Danish, but I will translate it when I get
better time for it (I am currently (too) busy writing a piece for
the Danish Radio Symf. Orch.), so don't expect to much from me
until later in october. But then you can count me in as an
interested composer - maybe not with scores, but with whatever
I can contribute with.
> o Urtext music or an edition/arrangement which is entirely out of
> copyright.
Urtext is a precise concept which can be applied to any score, even the
one I write this very minute, it is not related to the copyright stuff.
I suppose you refer to this:
+70 years of age + urtext + lilypond = new free edition.
> o Music edited especially for Mutopia, the notes are out of copyright
> but the edited remarks aren't.
I don't understand that, which remarks ?
> o Music arranged especially for Mutopia, although the tune is out of
> copyright, the notes themselves aren't.
Do this really exist ? AFAIK if it is old enough to be out of
copyright, then anyone can create a new edition ?
> o Music that isn't out of copyright, the use of which on Mutopia has
> been allowed by the composer.
This category is very dangerous (this is what I have sent a note about
to Han-Wen), but also very important to include in Mutopia.
Many composers has signed contracts with the international copyright
orgs.
which essentially transfers the administration of their copyrights to
the orgs., so even if the composer say it is okay, (he || she) may not
be
legally able to give you these permissions (this is in fact the
situation for the majority of composers in Europe).
So the new sheet music can be free to download etc., but as soon someone
plays it in public, or (a real nice thing I would enjoy enormously) put
a
recording of it on the web, then it is unfree as you will have to pay
royalties for it. And *the composer cant do a thing about it* if (he ||
she)
is a member of the copyright orgs. (KODA in Denmark, SACEM in France,
and so on).
I wont get more into it, but do get serious legal advice via gnu.org.
My best regards,
Michael Nyvang.
