Copyright Issues

1217 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by jazfyrski, May 31, 2007

jazfyrski

Discussion Starter · May 30, 2007

I recently responded to an "S.O.S." from a forum member who is preparing for an audition. I sent mp3s of the same piece from two different classical saxophone CDs. Two other forum members posted with comments concerning copyright. I've haven't seen this issue raised in this thread before so at the risk of sounding naive, I'm asking to be educated.

Is sending one selection from a professionally recorded CD for the sole purpose of providing a model of artistic interpretation for a fellow student preparing the same piece for an audition wrong? Isn't this the same as a professor who allows students to borrow recordings from his CD library to guide and inspire them? But even if it is legal, is it ethical and respectful to the artist who recorded the CD?

Should the fact that classical saxophone recordings have a tiny market and that many of the legendary recordings of iconic artists are only on out-of-print LPs (with virtually no chance that the legal owners of the master tapes will release them commercially again) affect the issue? Certainly unauthorized copying and distributing CDs for profit can't be defended, but is it unethical--or even practical--to insist that there be no copying of any CDs for any reason?

What are the boundaries?

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VaudvilleSax

· #2 · May 30, 2007

i was kinda joking with my post.

But legally, I think any copying at all is illegal... even if professors make copies of a cd for their student, i still believe it is illegal.

I think it should be ok for educational purposes though... but legally, i dont think it is. I agree with what you are concerned with though.

I was just being a pain in the butt.

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srcsax

· #3 · May 30, 2007

SInce i was one of the two that chimed in...

No, it is not legal. It does take money away from the artist so it probably isn't ethical. But, we all seem do it.

I'm not sure if "out of print" voids a copywrite.

Ask yourself this: If the classical sax CD market is so small, are we making it smaller by ilegal copy?

Yours truely,
Pain in the Butt

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danarsenault

· #4 · May 30, 2007

You might want to learn a bit about US copyright law and the fair use doctrine before you take money out of somebody's pocket.

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Mandra

· #5 · May 30, 2007

There are some rules about copying. I know for instance that some old LP's are becoming public domain now. In my school there is a project now that converts all the old LP's to new cd's. If you want, you can distribute those new CD's for free, even ask money for it. But only if you have the original LP that has become public domain.

http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

There you can find some more information about what is public domain and not... I'm not sure of everything I'm saying here, it's just how they told me at school. If you want to be certain, contact a good lawyer

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jazfyrski

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 31, 2007

Thanks for the replies. The suggested links offered some interesting (to me!) reading.

For srcsax and VaudvilleSax:

I wasn't offended at all by your posts; it just gave me pause to consider an issue I hadn't really thought of before. It's one of the reasons I check this website nearly every day: there's always something new to learn from the members!

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