Posted by Rick Denney on June 25, 2002 at 13:47:19:
In Reply to: Re: Copywright vs. Punishment posted by Rod Mathews on June 24, 2002 at 21:49:21:
The information on the Music Library Association's web page is quite interesting, and it contains much that bears on this discussion. But it is also a page that advocates a position that may or may not have been verified in case law. In other words, they are laying out the way they want things to be according to their interpretation of the law, not the way they are in terms of what has held up in court. You can tell because they use the word "ought" instead of "is" quite a lot. The publishers would likely have a different perspective. And if you look around on all the pages of that site, there is much that tempers the bit that you quoted here.
Personally, I agree with the position they advocate, and support the notion that copies should be allowed for music that is legitimately purchased as a matter of preservation. But I would not take it for granted that the courts will agree that making copies to prevent irresponsible children from losing them is quite what is meant by preservation, and that performing a work by a school band is quite the same thing as fair use for educational purposes. The fair use doctrine states the purpose as being study, not performance, for example. Just because teachers and students are using something doesn't make the use educational.
If MLA's position has been supported by the courts, then that should make those who have copied parts for private study breathe a bit easier. I know for a fact that many publishers do not subscribe to these views, but, of course, they are as much an advocate as MLA.
I am not an advocate. I'm just a businessman with some experience with copyright law who thinks people ought to know what they are getting into before they do something that could get them in trouble. My desire is not to come down on band directors, but to pass along what I've learned so that someone else doesn't come down on them, and more harshly than a pig-tailed, red-headed teenager on Tubenet can.
Rick "don't shoot the messenger" Denney