[Harp-L] plagarism

["Glenn Weiser" <celticguitar1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Message: 13
Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:56:47 -0700
From: fjm <mktspot@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] plag(i)arism
Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID: <4689203F.8080203@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Glenn Weiser writes:

> In academia, people get fired for plagarism,

Which gets to the heart of the matter.  Whether or not you object to
someone lifting an entire solo and placing it in a different context is
cultural.  Walter Joyce has already supplied us with a pretty complete
legal opinion.  Basically what's being argued about are cultural values.
 Good luck getting consensus on that.  I'm also noticing a lot of
confusion regarding performance rights versus publishing and recording
rights.  Did the venue have an ASCAP decal?  fjm


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fjm-

The venue was a large outdoor event and most likely had a ASCAP deal. But 
I'm not contending that any copyright infrigement occurred in this case.
After all, when those Chess songs were recorded the standard industry 
practice was to copyright only the lead sheet sheet, which consisted of the 
lyrics and vocal line. I know the recordings are copyright, but I'm not sure 
if the solos themselves are actually covered by the original copyright of 
the song. Maybe Walter Joyce could opine here. When Hal Leonard put out 
Master of the the Blues Harp they did negoiate publishing permissions with 
all the copyright holders, though.

As a legal nuance, Carey Bell was angry that he got no money for his solo on 
his remake of  "I'm Ready," which I transcribed for the book. The Goodman 
Group, which holds the publishing rights to the Chess cataloge, got paid for 
it (I was just a hired pen and had no role in any legal decisions). That 
would suggest to me that there is no copyright protection for an improvised 
solo. So I doubt if the artist under discussion here would have infringed, 
unless the copyright of the recording (rather than the leadsheet) would have 
extened to live performances.

-Glenn