Transcript No Slide Title

Copyright v. the
Democratic Right to Know
La propriété intellectuelle contre
l’accès démocratique au savoir
Online version (no media files)
Version internet (sans fichiers média)
Philip Tagg — Colloque Éthique, Droit et Musique, Université de Québec à Montréal, 2007-10-20
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (2)
Understanding music in today’s
world: the basic problem
• 3.5 hours music per day on average
• 2 hrs/day: music with moving images
• Audio(-visual) material mainly under copyright
Understanding how all this music works presupposes
access to copyrighted audio(-visual) recordings
• Teachers can’t legally duplicate viewing/listening
materials (= no actual music to study!)
• Libraries/students can’t possibly buy the repertoire
• ‘Free enterprise’ (competition) impedes ‘legal’
production of listening/viewing repertoire
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (3)
Examples of the basic problem
1. Tagg v. YouTube & C20 Fox
Teaching context: courses Analyse de la musique populaire
and Musique et images en mouvement (Faculté de musique,
Université de Montréal)
Illustration of central concepts in musematic analysis
method: gestural interconversion and connotative precision
Video ex. The Dream of Olwen: reception tests and responses
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (4)
www.tagg.org
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (5)
click !
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (6)
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim
by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (7)
View the offending clip at
http://tagg.org/!temp/OlwenSofMusicYuTu.mov
For more information, see
http://tagg.org/YouTubeFox0710.html
and
http://tagg.org/articles/xpdfs/filminternat0412.pdf
an ongoing case...
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (8)
2. Tagg v. Universal Studios
Doctorate (1979) in musicology.
Kojak ▬ 50 Seconds of Television Music: towards the
analysis of affect in popular music
Access to the original score denied by Universal.
Access gained by contacting Universal’s local
publishing representatives and by quoting the Helsinki
agreement to the U.S. information service.
P P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (9)
3
Sheila Whiteley v. Abkco
• “I’ve tried’ -- £70 “and I’ve tried” + £70
• “I’ve tried’ -- £70 “and I’ve tried” + £70
(but I can’t get no....) = £280
Payment demanded for right to quote lyrics only of Satisfaction in
scholarly article!
Hroar Klempe v. Coca Cola
4
• En stil-analytisk innfallsvinkel til forståelsen av musikken i
reklameuttrykket (musicology PhD, 1992, focusing on Coca Cola
jingles; Universitetet i Trondheim; in Norwegian)
• Prohibited by Coca Cola’s lawyers from producing more than the
minimum no. of copies required by Norwegian universities.
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (10)
The repertoire teaching problem
Music heard, often recognised, sometimes
even sung or played by billions of people,
cannot legally be taught.
Essential, representative listening /
viewing materials cannot be copied
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (11)
The research publication problem
• Extracts from musical “texts” quoted by
musicologists cannot be legally reproduced in
learned publications without permission from
copyright holders.
• Who owns copyright to what in which part of the
world?
• Will publishers reply?
• Will publishers give permission?
• Will permission be afforable?
+ the repertoire teaching problem!
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (12)
brimades?
Compounding problem:
Corporate bullying, terror and criminalisation
Submissiveness and lack of legal expertise
• librarians, administrators,
university legal deparmnets
• professors, researchers and students
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (13)
Part 2: What to do.
Don’t let them scare you!
Wise up legally!
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (14)
Part 2a: Don’t be scared!
• You have allies (next part)
• The law may be on your side (next part)
• Media corporation legal departments have
much bigger fish to fry than you: software
pirates, DVD pirates, etc.
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (15)
Part 2b: Wise up legally!
Allies (1)
• British Academy
• Lessig’s Free Culture
• Wikipedia on Copyright and on WIPO
• Open Rights Group (Doctorow, Toronto)
• Creative Commons
• WIPOUT (incl. Chomsky)
Part 2b: Wise up legally!
Allies (2)
• EFF (eff.org) = Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Legal guide for bloggers (eff.org/bloggers/lg/)
• Chilling Effects (chillingeffects.org)
including counter-claim templates
• Mass-media Music Scholars’ Press (mmmsp.com)
counter-claim templates: legally safe book publishing
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (16)
Part 2b: Wise up legally!
The march of history
• From notation to recording to internet
• Radiohead!
• CCIA
(Computer & Communications Industry Association, Washington, DC.
Backed by Google, Microsoft and others)
• One 6th of U.S. GDP derived from companies
depending on Fair Use, open source, etc.
• Universal, C20 Fox, &c. are fighting a
desparate rearguard action!
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (17)
Part 2b: Wise up legally!
FAIR USE & SCHOLARLY USE
Section 107 of Title 17 of U.S. Code (federal law): 5 points
1. Nature & character of use
(scholarly, non-profit, non-commercial, etc.)
2. Creative or factual?
(informative “or” entertaining, etc.)
3. How much of the work is taken?
4. Adverse effects on market for plaintiff?
5. Is “offending” work transformative or not?
(solely repackaged or fundamentally different)
P Tagg (Oct 07) — Copyright v. knowledge (7)
In short
1. Educate yourself
2. Educate your authorities
3. Educate your students
4. Do not succumb to corporate terror
Everyone has the right to know how music can influence
them to think, feel, react and evaluate people, situations,
environments, actions, etc.
A musicological principle
worth going to jail for!
Copyright versus the
Democratic Right to Know
Philip Tagg — Faculté de musique, Université de Montréal, 2007
www.tagg.org
END