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To All ARSClist member Sorry- I inadvertently sent out an old, incomplete posting. Please ignore and delete it at your convenience. My apologies, Aaron Levinson Begin forwarded message: > From: Aaron Luis Levinson <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Tue Oct 21, 2003 12:39:24 PM US/Eastern > To: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Correspondence with Lawrence Lessig > > Let me offer a novel approach to one of the scenarios in question > which to my knowledge has not > been previously presented: > > Let us say a regional band(Los Cyberians) got together the money to > press an album in 1971(Cyberian Wine Tour). > The Cyberians did not register their original songs with any > performing rights society. > They did not send in a form SR to the LOC because such a form did not > exist. > They looked in the phonebook then went to a pressing plant and decided > on a name for their label, > usually a female name spelled backwards will suffice for this purpose. > They did not establish > a real corporate entity, instead they opted for the drummer's address > as the office of the label > because his mom let him use the triangular room above the garage for > official band business. > The initial pressing run of 500 proved to be an ample supply, as the > record only sold 217 copies > not including the 3 they gave away to the local college radio station. > In short, there > are at best 265 copies of this album in used record stores and yard > sales around the world, > counting the 15 copies that are in the hands of rabid collectors who > realize this forgotten > gem is truly superb music that never found its audience. > > Phonolog is consulted and indeed no trace of the Cyberians album > exists. > But, the fifteen copies in the hands of private collectors become > semi-legendary > testimonials to this amazing garage ensemble. Finally, one of the > collectors decides > to share this lost classic with the world by getting an audiophile > turntable a high-end > sound system and transfer the vinyl to a CD. In the process he cleans > up some surface > noise and de-clicks the program very gently, he goes on to compress > and eq the source > and at the end of a week the album has been turned from a noisy > semi-professional outing > into a rounded professional product with punch, detail and wide > frequency response. > > He decides to re-issue the album on a small label for the devotees > that exist for garage > based music of this genre. However, even though he has carefully > searched for anyone > who claimed ownership he found no one. This mercurial guy went ahead > and established a bank > account for the band and began paying royalties and publishing into an > escrow account > as though the band had been found. He did this and accounted to the > band for every dollar > that would be owed in standard licensing agreement for a song licensed > to a major label > soundtrack for example. > > > > On Monday, July 21, 2003, at 04:16 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote: > >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "James L Wolf" <[log in to unmask]> >>> The "use it or lose it" proposal is pretty much unworkable and >>> unfair, unless one applied it only after a long period of time like >>> 50 >>> years or so. Otherwise, any indie publishers would have to keep >>> stuff in >>> print without any lapses to keep their copyrights. Just bringing down >>> the length of copyright to somewhere under 170+ years might be a >>> better >>> start. >> Well, I'm mainly thinking in terms of sound recordings...most of >> which have >> very short "half-lives!" However, in this current digital age, all >> (print) >> indie publishers would have to keep would be the final printable file, >> usually in a graphics program; open it, hit "Print" and bind the >> results, >> and there's a book. There might be problems with movies and the like >> (though they could be kept in digital form as well). >> It would, though, eliminate the problem where "Globazized, Inc." >> holds the >> near-perpetuasl rights to a recording, and can tell you "Well, we're >> not >> going to reissue it...but we won't let YOU!" >>> As to the second suggestion, it's my understanding that recordings >>> made by corporations which "died intestate" are de facto Public >>> Domain >>> (and the intellectual content as well if pre-1923). If no-one can >>> claim >>> ownership, no-one can claim infringement. Emerson is a good example >>> of >>> this. >> The problem is we don't always know what is and isn't "public domain." >> Take NYRL (Paramount) for example...they apparently sold out to >> Gennett >> in 1932, and Gennett apparently sold out to Decca in 1934...but that's >> only as best I know, and depends on whether the buy-outs included >> perpetual rights to everything they had ever recorded. Oberstein >> reissued a fair amount of Crown on his Varsity/et al lines...but did >> he buy the rights or just find the stampers at RCA from the days when >> the latter pressed Crown? >> ...stevenc >> > > Sincerely, Aaron