Transcript Representation of Musical Information

Music Similarity, Sampling, &
Intellectual Property Rights
Donald Byrd
School of Informatics
Indiana University
Updated 11 April 2008
Copyright © 2003-08, Donald Byrd
1
Review: Classification: Logician General’s Warning
• Classification is dangerous to your understanding
– Almost everything in the real world is messy, ill-defined
– Absolute correlations between characteristics are rare
• Example: some mammals lay eggs; some are “naked”
• Example: was the first real piano Cristofori's (ca. 1700), Broadwood's (ca.
1790), or another?
– People say “an X has characteristics A, B, C…”
– Usually mean “an X has A, & usually B, C…”
– Leads to:
• People who know better claiming absolute correlations
• “Is it this or that or that?” questions that don’t have an answer
• Don changing his mind
• But lack of classification is dangerous to understanding!
• So should we abandon hierarchic classifications?
– Of course not; they're much too useful
– Just to be on guard for misleading things in classifications
26 Nov. 07
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Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) (1)
• IPR is huge problem for music IT
– No one knows the answers! Different in different
countries!
– Problem for research, but bigger problem for use
• NB: I’m not a lawyer
• U.S. Constitution: balance rights of creators &
public
– “To achieve these conflicting goals and serve the public
interest requires a delicate balance between the
exclusive rights of authors and the long-term needs of a
knowledgeable society.” —Mary Levering, U.S.
Copyright Office (2000)
– After some time, work enters Public Domain
26 Nov. 07
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Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) (2)
• Popular chart: “When Works Pass Into the Public
Domain in U.S.”
– http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
• Law supposed to balance rights of creators &
public, but…
– Time till Public Domain getting longer & longer
– Notice no longer required => harder to identify owners
• Unclear why: hurts creators and public
– Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act: not till 70 years
after creator’s death!
• “Joke”: When will old Disney movies be in Public Domain?
– Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) restricts
owner’s rights
• Ex.: W/few exceptions, bypassing encryption, etc. is a federal
felony!
26 Nov. 07
4
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) (3)
• “Fair Use”: U.S. limit on copyright owners’
exclusive rights
– Traditionally for excerpts for reviews, etc.
– Not well-defined. Four tests:
–
–
–
–
1.
2.
3.
4.
Purpose and character of use, including if commercial or not
Nature of copyrighted work
Amount and substantiality of portion used rel. to whole work
Effect of use on potential market for/value of copyrighted work
– Many countries (e.g., U.K.) don’t have anything similar
(& term may be unique to U.S.)
• U.S. law also has specific educational exemptions
– Many countries don’t have any
26 Nov. 07
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Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) (4)
• De minimis: about something very small
– “The law isn’t interested in trivia”
– Ex: claim of copyright in document in public domain
after merely correcting spelling errors
– Ex: claim of copyright infringement when alleged
infringer's use of copyrighted work is slight
• Derivative works are more complex
– In any form (notation, MIDI, or audio)
– New editions, arrangements, variations, transcriptions,
remixes, etc.
– Medleys and Mashups: derivative of multiple sources
26 Nov. 07
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Concepts of IPR in Music
• NB: I’m not a lawyer!
• For music, U.S. copyright is “bundle of
rights”
– mechanical right: use in commercial
recordings, ROMs, online delivery for private
use
– synchronization right: use in audio/visual works
(movies, TV, etc.)
– More complex than text works because a
performing art, plus have arrangements, etc.
• Compulsory licensing after 1st recording, etc.
26 Nov. 07
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Music IPR in Practice (1)
• Music IPR in practice
– Mp3.com sued… & shut down
– Church choir director arranged work, did free
performance; sent arrangement to publisher =>
sued & lost
– “DVD Jon” found innocent under Norwegian
law; probably would have been guilty in U.S.
– Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks
• Napster sued by RIAA & shut down
• Others include Gnutella, Kazaa, FreeNet, BitTorrent
• Betamax decision: does technology have
“substantial non-infringing uses”?
26 Nov. 07
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Music IPR in Practice (2)
• Example: Student wants to quote brief excerpts
from Beethoven piano sonatas in class paper, in
notation form
– Do they need permission from anyone?
• Beethoven dead for more than 70 years => music is
in Public Domain
• …but not all editions are
• Still, don’t need permission: clearly Fair Use
– What if they want to use a recording?
• Probably not P.D., but still Fair Use
26 Nov. 07
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Sampling & Copying, Normal to Extreme
• IPR issues: is it a derivative work? Is use
defensible under Fair Use, or de minimis?
• Normal
– Used in hip hop, turntablism, mashups, etc.
• Extreme: Audio Mosaicing
– sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ!
• http://www.popmodernism.org/scrambledhackz/.
• “Copyright infringements have never been easier!”
• Really a tool for improvising video (incl. music) based on
existing material, regardless of legal status
– Others: Michael Casey’s Sue Me #1, etc.
• Clearing rights takes time as well as money
– Example: brief excerpts in Don’s dissertation
– Many rights owners are reasonable; some aren’t
26 Nov. 07
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IPR in The Real World (1)
• A common way for people to decide what’s OK
– Consider ethics: any problem?
– Consider practical effects: any problem?
– If no and no, go ahead
• Example: Member of this class wants to share copyrighted
music with others in the class
– Ethics: it depends
– Practical effects: very likely none
• Thorny issue: at what point is sampling a problem?
– Exx: Amen Break, Grey Album (DJ Danger Mouse)
• Deeper, thornier issue: does IPR even make sense?
– Copyright comicbook: yes, but now misapplied => hurting public
– Lawrence Lessig: yes, but now misapplied => hurting public, &
even inhibiting development of a new art form (mosaicing)
– Sven Koenig (Scrambled Hackz): no(?); Ian Clarke (Freenet):
absolutely not!
26 Nov. 07
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IPR in The Real World (2): What’s Next?
• NB: I’m not a psychic, either!
• Analogies from Tom Broido (Theodore Presser
president; former president, Music Publ. Assoc.)
– Music publishers as beachfront property owners
– Record stores as fire victims, music publs. as rescuers
• Indications (pro: C=consumer, O=owner, Q=status quo)
– C: bannedmusic.org is still around
– Q: Repeated failure of DRM schemes, except Apple’s!
– Q: Huge success of Apple’s iTunes & iPod
– Q: Nov. 2006 deal between MS & Universal
– O: Oct. 2007: IMSLP shut down
– C? O?: RIAA legal action, activity in Congress
– O!: “Trusted platforms”: hardware protection coming
26 Nov. 07
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IPR in The Real World (3): More Information
• IUPUI Copyright Management Center
– http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/
– Hurry: may be shut down any time!
• MLA Copyright for Music Librarians
– http://www.lib.jmu.edu/org/mla/
• Creative Commons
• Columbia Law School Music Plagiarism Project
• Wikipedia articles: intellectual property rights,
Fair Use, The Grey Album, etc.
• Cf. my Music IR & Informatics Bibliography
– http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/donbyrd/DonMusic
IRBibliography.HTML
11 April 08
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