Michael Ossmann wrote:
>
> Hello. I have a question about music licenses. I would like to publish
> some sheet music on the Internet under an open license of some sort.
> Specifically, I want my music to be free to distribute, modify, perform,
> and record as long as credit is given where it is due. So far, it looks
> like I'll probably go with one of the licenses at opencontent.org, but I
> have questions about the specific issues of performance and recordings. I
> would like to allow royalty-free use of my music even in a commercial
> setting. Does anyone have any suggestions?
>
I think it is a very good idea, I myself has been considering this
with some computermusic studies, as mentioned earlier in this
discussion:
"I have a nutty idea like that, to put a number of computermusic
studies (I call it soundart, or twinkles) on the net, free for
others to grab and use, as long the network of persons doing
this would accept also to share their works, and as long nothing
of this would ever be mixed with unfree samples, or published
on unfree media's."
you should however consider whether there is uses of your music
you would think is wrong, like porn background music, nazi meetings
and so on. As your music isn't software there is some subtle
differences in what freedom mean for music, as compared with
software. The concept "le droit morale" do protect you automatically
against this however, so even if your music is free, anyone may
actually raise a "droit morale" lawsuit, if they think your music
is being misused seriuosly.
What you can do in praksis is very much dependent on which papers
you have signed with which organisations or publishers. And it also
to some extend depends on your nationalty, as the rules of the
game differs from country to country.
If you read through this thread you may get some ideas, but most
important is that you make certain that you yourself have not
signed any contract which transfers part of your copyrights
and their administration to a publisher, or an organisation
which collects royalties on your behalf. Because if you have
done so, (like most proffesional composers in Europe has) then
you can not publish any of your music under a GPL or Open Content
like license. Why, well:
* You can give your music away, but you can't give others
the right to redistribute it, as this activity is covered
by the royalty collecting orgs.
* You can not give other people the performance rights
as this is also covered by the royalty collecting orgs.
so in other words if you have not signed any contracts
with KODA, SACEM, etc., then you can do what you mention,
otherwise you can't, unless you call it something else than
music (that is why I call my sketches twinkles (which is
soundart, not music), I havn't got a clue if KODA buys
that one, but I will start playing around with it this fall,
on my website, then we will see what happens):
The Foobar Bazaar, http://home16.inet.tele.dk/mnyvang/
A completely different thing is that there is a guy
who advocates another model which may interest you,
he has a site here:
http://www.ram.org/ramblings/philosophy/fmp.html
Best regards,
Michael Nyvang.
