Re: Music Business Law
Copyright- major revisions in 1909 and 1976. 1790- performance rights were made, 1909- mechanical rights were added, 1976- codifying was added. 1978- copyright was given to the lifetime of the artist plus 70 years. 1989 The US joined the Berne Convention, which is an organization for international copyright. 1992- Audio Home Recording Act allowed the duplication of tape but outlawed direct digital duplication Royalties were paid on machines to go to the publishers to allow duplication. 1998- Digital Millennium Copyright this made it so there was royalties for distribution over the Internet.
1976 copyright law changed the span of the copyright to life plus 70 years. Performance royalties are not payed to copyright holder of sound recordings. Public broadcast, cable, colleges, schools, and jukeboxes were required to pay performance royalties. Fair Use was codified but the terms are vague. The copyright owner can still sue someone if they try to claim fair use; it basically up to a jury and whether or not someone is sued to determine the conditions of fair use. Fair Use if the rights to use parts of someone else’s copyrighted work and make it part of your own. In 1976 there was also a writing into law of periodic reexamination of payment rates. In 1976 ideas could not be copyrighted but expression of ideas could. For example a mathematical equation can’t be copyrighted but expounding of the idea could, for example giving a definition of the mathematical terms in the equation. Literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic, pictorial/graphical, motion pictures, sound recoding, architectural works are protected under the copyright. Published works do not include government documents.
A copyright holder can:
-Reproduce the copyright in copies or phonorecords
-Prepare derivative work
-Distribute copies or phonorecords to the public for sale or other transaction of ownership
-To preform the work publicly
-To display the copyright to the public
-Perform to the public by means of a digital audio transmission
-Can be spit, for example in music if there is a lyricist and a composer the rights can be split 50/50. Film is a little different. Usually if it is new music the music is a part of the video copyrights. Royalties of soundtracks are open for discussion in contracts.
Work For Hire:
-Staff workers at publishers that are paid salary usually do not own their copyrights. In these cases the publisher usually owns all the copyrights. Normally these workers do not get any money on royalties. Staff workers don’t own the copyright and can’t claim the copyright back.
-Copyrights allows the holder to transfer the rights to any other person. Songwriters usually give up part of the copyright to get a deal with a publisher. In these cases it is normally 50/50 split. The rights can give out percentages of the copyright. Certificates of Recordation are forms that give out part of the transferred copyright. Recapture allows former copyright holder to get their copyright back it can be done after 35 years. The transfer rate is negotiable but is usually between 1-5 years.