Re: [ARSCLIST] ASCAP follows RIAA down the road guaranteed not to make friends

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Olhsson" <olh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> -----Original Message-----
> >From Steven C. Barr: "...in the days of Bach and Beethoven, neither musical
> "copyrights"
> nor performing-rights organizations existed, so one could use <composer>'s
> second movement from rent arrears without paying for the privilege...!"
> 
> Bach and Beethoven BOTH had publishers. Copyright in the modern sense of
> being controlled by the author also dates back to 1709.  Prior to that,
> according to Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, "the sovereign asserted
> control over printing by issuing patents or privileges to individuals or by
> organizing publishers' guilds with monopoly rights." I'm pretty sure
> performance rights also very much existed for both music and drama by the
> time of Bach and Beethoven.
> 
Actually, that was my unintentional error! Copyright DID exist (as noted)
for "published" items (though I have no idea of the terms...if any?!).
However, what did NOT exist at that time was the concept of performing
rights...that is, money payable to the publisher and/or composer for the
public performance and/or use of music to which they held the rights.
Therefore, while classical works may well have still been copyrighted,
ASCAP (et al) felt no need of collecting any royalties thereon...!

> The predecessor of copyright laws was unlimited copyright under common law.
> The trend has been almost entirely in the direction of weakening creators'
> rights. A recent exception has been the lengthening of US and a few other
> country's copyright terms to match those of other countries. Historically
> the US has had some of the weakest copyright laws in the world.
> 
This may well be true; however, one of the most important things involved
was the emergence (late 18th century onward) of a whole NEW form of music,
that being "popular" music! Historically, "classical" works had an effectively
unlimited "shelf life"...a classical piece never (AFAIK) became "too old to
play!" Therefore, there may not have been a legal limitation per "duration
of copyright!" However, from c.1890 on, music was distributed increasingly
in the form of "sound recordings" as opposed to printed scores or "sheet
music." By the post-WWII era, the distribution was effectively entirely
via sound recordings...and printed (and thus, like any other printed
document, copyrightable in that form...!) music, at least in the realm
of "pop music," had drifted into obscurity...!

Sadly, I can't speak knowledgeably as to the copyright terms applicable
in the US of A to publisher and/or composer copyrights and their terms...
however, the US of A currently effectively applies an infinite length to
the copyrights on sound recordings fixed therein (by simply deferring
the problem to long-ago laws concerning "piracy," which effectively
made it illegal to reissue ANY previously-fixed sound recording unless
one was the original "fixer" thereof...! Of course, we will finally
obtain access to these previously-fixed sound recordings (including
Edison's original recital of "Mary Had a Little Lamb"...?!) on Jan. 1,
2067 (a little over 59 years from now...!), after which the surviving
radioactive cockroaches will enjoy full legal access to our recorded
history...!

Steven C. Barr