Re: Copying music. A Crime?


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Posted by Tubalawyer on September 21, 2001 at 06:47:39:

In Reply to: Copying music. A Crime? posted by Tubist on September 20, 2001 at 22:59:09:

Violation of copyright by makeing illegal copies is a crime, and rightly so, for without the protection of copyright laws, composers would have no incentive to publish (other than the pure glory, I suppose) and publishers would not exist.

Copyright law represents a tension between the principle of the free exchange of ideas and an author's right to control his expression of those ideas. Ideas are not protected by copyright, the particular expression is.

Even if a work is protected by copyright, you may still be able to make a copy under the somewhat ill-defined "fair use" doctrine. Generally speaking, most copyright lawyers would suggest you are on pretty safe grounds to make an individual copy of part of a work (e.g. your part) for private study. Public performance is another kettle of fish, since many authors retain the right to public performances and require royalties and rental of the parts.

Works in the public domain are freely copyable, to the extent the edition copied is in the public domain, but one must be very careful. A particular edition, say the Breitkopf & Hartel version of Bach's Brandenburg Concerti, is protected, where the underlying work is not. If you can find a 19th century edition where copyrights have not been renewed, you can almost certainly copy it, but you can't copy the latest scholarly edition.






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