"If a song is transposed in to a different key.
If you use the same melody and people could recognized the original song, then that would probably carry you over to copyright infringement. That is if you rerecord or publicly perform the song with out the copyright holder’s permission or compensating the copyright holder.


[This message has been edited by to the genesys (edited 01-07-2005).]

. but how do they decide what artist gets how much?!?!?
t.

they have a rating system, that rates the songs by popularity, very complicated, you can guess about the top 100 hits and album sales but what about a song like happy birthday, which I think is still under copyright or it ended in recent years.
Not a big seller not played on the radio alot but alot of live performance.
If you record a song that has a copyright you have to pay x amount per song times the number of copies you are printing, not just whats sold.

[This message has been edited by mikeathome1 (edited 01-07-2005).]

I deleted my long post. I think people who cry about their royalties, (I don't care if it's $1.00, $5.00 or $1000.00 a month) should have to go work on a real job like construction until lunch hour one day and then go home and thank God for their $5.00 a month royalty payment they receive.

Royalties forever and forever are absurd, absurd and at the very least extremely absurd, especially the millions that are paid for writing "Roses are Red my love, violets are blue."

Hell I said that in 1947 in kindergarten. Well why didn't you write that Boo? Because I'm not that simple minded, stupid!

Stark Whitman recorded and Henry Schroeder wrote a song that's still played every time graduadion rolls around in New Orleans called "Graduation Day" Stark died some time back and Henry still plays music around New Orleans and neither have ever received a cent.

Their agent screwed them. Now that I don't agree with at all. They were two pretty congenial fellows. If it were me that somebody screwed that bad, the agent at the least would be crippled today.

That reminds of a quote by Little Richard when talking about the agents that screwed him out of his royalties for his famous tunes he said " I don't get nothing, no hello, no goodbye, not even a card on my birthday."

All this sounds a little heavy and totally discouraging for you guys in the US. Is this only a problem (challenge) in the club scene, or does it get into the nursing home, church and concert scene also? What about if you do arrangements comprising of themes to three or four songs as a medley. Where is the boundary between copywrite and original?

Jon.

I have read all your comments with interest.
yet I am still confused.
I am a non professional bass baritone singer that loves to sing and perform but I do not have
the resources financially or timewise to ensure
the owners of copyright material are duly compensated.
How can I tell if music is out of copyright?
Our Australian Goverment tried to pass legislation putting a $1 tax on all CD's,tapes
etc.It was rejected because no one could agree how the funds were to destributed.
It would of possibly cut out the present organisations.

In the 70's I worked for radio stations. Two weeks out of every year we had to log every single song we played, listing song title, artist, composer and, if it was on the label, the licensing agency: BMI, ASCAP or SESAC. We were told every radio station in the country had to do this and the results would be tabulated to figure a "guestimate" of who gets paid what.

Yeah, right.

Eddie

The case I remember most is George Harrison getting sued for "my sweet lord" the first three notes.."my sweet lord" are the same as.. "he's so fine". Otherwise I don't think the songs have anything in common, except those three notes repeated.
the writers or copyright holders of "he's so fine" sued and won a judgement agains Harrison.
I'm no lawyer but I'm gonna guess that there are all kinds of protections built into the law that protects the copyright holder against any trick, or variation you can think of.
to read more about it http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/mysweet.htm

This article also explains a little about how they decide how much to pay the writer and the different types of fees such as performance, mechanical, etc.

[This message has been edited by mikeathome1 (edited 01-08-2005).]

Copyrights are not a problem but they are something that has to be delt with by anyone who presents music in the public, including clubs, restaraunts, concert venues, schools, churches and more. Even public schools, which make no money from their performances, must pay performance fees to present music recitals and most music directors know how to do this. I'm not aware of any exclusions unless the music presented is classical.

The boundary is simple - if you write a song then you own the copyright to that work immediately upon writing it. To make it formal and provable in court, you file for a copyright, otherwise known as intellectual property rights. This is a legal deed much like the title to a car... it can be bought, sold and traded as real property.

FYI: it's "copyright" as in the rights to the copy, not "copywrite" - a song covered by copyright is "copyrighted", not "copywritten".

The way that copyright laws are defined an artist may secure their rights to their own original work. Others must pay if they "derive benefit from" that work. Note that is not the same as making money - in other words even if you use another person's work and make no money at all, such as when you make a free demo tape of music you didn't write yourself and don't make a cent from it, you are responsible for paying the royalties. If you make a medley of three or four songs then you are responsible for royalties to all of the individual authors and/or their publishers and/or their representative organizations. For that matter, even if you use a few seconds of a song, you are liable fo royalty fees... this is having an impact on people who sample.

Copyrights cover the work for 75 years after the death of the author, and even then the family of the deceased may file for an extension (and often do). Practically every popular song written in the 20th century is covered by copyright currently. Once the copyright expires then the song is considered public domain, such as all classical music.

One interesting side note: arrangements are not copyrightable in the US, which is a problem for professional music arrangers (not the electronic ones we use). So I understand that some musical arrangers here in the US actually file for their arrangement copyrights in France where they are allowed to do so. The US is then bound by it's own international agreements to recognize that copyright.

Disclaimer: I am fairly knowledgeable about copyrights but I am not a legal expert.


[This message has been edited by The Pro (edited 01-08-2005).]