Copyright
Committee
This
committee monitors information and developments
related to sound recording copyright and
fair use issues. Its findings are shared with the
ARSC membership through the ARSC Journal, the
ARSC website, and annual conference programs.
Statement by the Chairman
ARSC's
involvement in an amicus brief supporting the legal
challenge to the 1998 Copyright
Term Extension Act (CTEA) before the Supreme Court
(Edred v. Ashcroft) was an education for many
of us. Not so much because of the way the case
turned out (we lost),
but as an education in copyright law, and
an introduction to other organizations that have
common cause with ARSC in ensuring that U.S.
laws do not discourage preservation and access to
historic materials.
I
hope to make the Copyright and Fair Use Committee
a clearing house for information on copyright as
it
affects sound recordings, both in the U.S. and in
other countries. This will involve not only
providing information on current laws, but also collecting
examples of the practical effect of those
laws, and supporting efforts to seek change where
warranted. It is obvious that there is a great
deal of misinformation out there, and even Washington
lobbyists who were working on the
challenge to the CTEA were unaware of the unusually
broad scope of the law regarding
recordings. ARSC can serve a valuable educational
function on behalf of preservation and access
to early recordings.
Everything
starts with accurate information, so as a first
step this web page provides links to
relevant documents and sites. Suggestions for additional
links are welcome. We also welcome
specific examples of how copyright law has impacted
your own activities in the field of sound
recording preservation, access and reissue activity.
Tim Brooks, Chair
tbroo@aol.com
LINKS TO INFORMATION ON COPYRIGHT AND RECORDINGS:
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/ Title 17 U.S. Code, the basic U.S. federal copyright
law. Legislation
such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and
the Copyright Term Extension Act are
incorporated into Title 17. Important sections regarding
sound recordings include 101
(definitions), 104 (foreign works), 107 (fair use),
108 (reproduction by libraries and archives),
301 (the "recording exemption," which places
pre-1972 recordings under state law until 2067),
and 302 (terms).
http://www.title17.com/
A private site containing both the act and important
supplementary materials such as legislative background
documents and relevant
treaties.
http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf Copyright Office summary of the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act of 1998, which expanded copyright in
numerous ways, including bringing certain
public domain works back under copyright, and establishing
restrictions on electronic and Internet
uses of copyrighted material.
http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/s505.pdf Text
of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act
(1998), which extended copyright coverage
for an additional twenty years.
http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/dmca.html and http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/primer.html Information
and background on the DMCA and CETA from
the Association of Research
Libraries website, including a very readable primer
on the events leading to their passage and their
impact on the library community.
http://www.lib.jmu.edu/org/mla/ The Music Library Association's (MLA) "Copyright
for Music
Librarians" site.
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/index.html A
detailed look at copyright law as it affects classroom
use and archives. Not about recordings specifically.
http://www22.brinkster.com/paradio/pages/pre1972.htm "Who
Owns Pre-1972 Sound
Recordings?" by Robert Clarida.
http://www.arl.org/preserv/sound_savings_proceedings/harper.html "Copyright
Law and Audio
Preservation" by Georgia K. Harper. Practical
advice for archivists. Paper delivered at Sound
Savings: Preserving Audio Collections, a conference
held in Austin, Texas, in 2003.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2298/3_17/62052928/print.jhtml "From
Music Publishing to
MP3: Music and Industry in the Twentieth Century" by
Reebee Garofalo. A detailed article about
the evolution of the U.S. music industry and the
laws that affect it, from American Music, Fall
1999. A useful overview, despite some gaffes (which
ARSC members will no doubt notice) in the
section on the early recording industry.
http://www.creativecommons.org/ Creative
Commons, a vast online library of audio, visual
and
other materials that have been made available free
to the public by their copyright holders.
Included are links to several audio sites, including
http://www.soundclick.com, which boasts more than
760,000 free recordings.
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu Website of the Center for Internet and Society
(CIS) at Stanford
University Law School, which sponsors studies of
and legal challenges to copyright law,
particularly as regards the internet. Information
on recent cases can be found here. The founder
and director of the Center is Lawrence Lessig.
http://www.publicknowledge.org Homepage of Public Knowledge, a public interest
organization
advocating reform of current copyright laws, with
up-to-date information on copyright legislation
currently pending before Congress.
http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/lcopyr.htm. A bibliography
of books and articles on copyright.
http://www.pdinfo.com/ A private site with advice
on how to research public
domain songs and lyrics, including a list of reference
books and links.
Includes a rather simplistic page on recordings ("NONE
PD until around 2067!!!").
International:
http://www.btinternet.com/~tony.kent/soundrec.htm "Sound
Recordings and Copyright" by Tony
Kent, a primer on British copyright law regarding
recordings.
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-42/ Text of the Canadian
Copyright Act.
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/cp/cp_circ_2-e.html Useful summary of Canadian
copyright law regarding recordings from the Canadian
Intellectual Property Office.
ARSC JOURNAL FAIR PRACTICES COLUMN:
Spring
2004 (Vol. 35, No. 1). "Is ARSC Sleeping
While Historic Recordings are Buried by
Copyright Law?" by Tim Brooks. To view article
click here (pdf).
Fall
2004 (Vol. 35, No. 2). "Copyright
CPR or When Public Domain is Not
Really Public Domain," a discussion of the Capitol
v. Naxos case by Eric Screwvala,
Esq.; and a review of the Lawrence Lessig book Free
Culture: How Big Media
Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture
and Control Creativity. To view article click here (pdf).
Spring
2005 (Vol. 36, No. 1). "Copyright Due Diligence," about
clearing the
rights to older sound recordings, by Eric Screwvala, Esq.; and a review of the
book Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It
Threatens Creativity, by Siva Vaidhyanathan. To view article click here (pdf).
Fall 2005 (Vol. 36, No. 2). "Webcasting
and Copyright Law or Why Old Dogs
Can't Learn New Tricks," by Eric Screwvala, Esq.; and a review of the book
Music and Copyright (Second Edition), Simon Frith and Lee Marshall, eds. To view
article click here (pdf).
Spring 2006 (Vol. 37, No. 1). Review of the book
Copyright Issues Relevant to
Digital Preservation of Pre-1972 Commercial Sound
Recordings by Libraries and
Archives, by June M. Besek. To view
article click here (pdf).
Fall
2006 (Vol. 37, No. 2). Commentary on state statutes
regarding the unauthorized duplication of
recordings, by David S. Levine, Esq.; and a review
of the book Steal This Music:
How Intellectual Property Law Affects Musical Creativity,
by Joanna Demers. To view article
click here (pdf).
Spring
2007 (Vol. 38, No. 1). Copyright News; British Library's
study of rights and clearance of sound recordings.
To view article click here (pdf).
ARSC JOURNAL ARTICLES REGARDING COPYRIGHT:
Fall 2005
(Vol. 36, No. 2). "How Copyright
Law Affects Reissues of Historic
Recordings: A New Study," by Tim Brooks. To
view article click here (pdf). |
